Iran got the regime change it wanted, Democrats soon in control. 
Never Too Late to Prove You’re Stupid
Republican efforts to turn rotten fish into edible Shushi continue nonstop.
The latest effort at defending a senseless war is by Montana Senator Time Sheehy in a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed If You Think War Is Unpopular, Wait Till You See Defeat
That’s a free link if you care to read the entire article. Here are some excerpts.
Some blamed the war for Republicans’ midterm losses, and although exit polling is imperfect, I agree that the conflict and its effect contributed.
[Contributed? Well OK, how about 100 percent of the excess carnage. That’s about 30 extra House seats and a few Senate seats, minimum.]
Donald Trump isn’t the first president to suffer politically from an unpopular war. Ask George W. Bush about Iraq, LBJ about Vietnam, or Harry S. Truman about Korea. That final example is the most salient.
[Mish: Salient? All three wars should never have been fought. And somehow Sheehy missed Afghanistan. Literally trillion of dollars we wasted in Afghanistan could have been spent on US infrastructure. But OK, Korea ended in stalemate.]
History often vindicates difficult decisions that were deeply unpopular in their time. Our fight against Iran will prove no different. This isn’t a fight for Israel or Saudi Arabia. It is a fight for Western civilization and the security of American families.
[Mish: Warmongers and neocons said the same thing about Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, all total disasters.]
For 47 years, Iran’s leaders have bet that they can hold America hostage to its demands, making any attempt to confront the regime so costly that Washington eventually backs down. They misjudged President Trump.
[Mish: That’s more warmonger horses**t. Trump trashed a deal that Obama made that was working. Trump’s own Secretary of Defense and top general in his first administration testified under oath that Iran was honoring the deal.]
From eliminating an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps senior officer in 2020 to targeting Iran’s nuclear program in 2025 and confronting the regime militarily in 2026, Mr. Trump has made tough calls to defend American security. His instincts are correct. The Iranian people will take down this regime as long as we set the conditions for their liberation. Success could end nearly half a century of Iranian aggression that has destabilized the Middle East and cost innocent lives. If we fail, the regime will survive and be stronger than ever—once a Democratic administration and rattled neighbors pivot back to appeasement.
The war is unpopular, but defeat would be far less popular. Three generations of soldiers have fought these barbarians. We owe it to our country and the West not to make it a fourth. It is time to finish the job.
Neocon Nation Building
These fools with their nation building efforts have never succeeded. And they never will.
“If we fail, the regime will survive and be stronger than ever,” said Sheehy.
He is right about one thing, almost. Change that from if we fail, to we already failed, and Sheehy is correct.
Ahead of this blatantly stupid war, Iran agreed to a deal, nearly the same deal as Obama delivered.
Instead, Trump chose war. And here we are, with neocons defending it.
Lesson of the Day
When public support dies, and people have had enough of the stupid wars, they end.
And they nearly always end the same way. Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq are the salient examples to use Sheehy’s own words.
Sheehy points to Korea, but look at Vietnam. We don’t know what would have happened in Korea had we not gotten involved.
We do know that Vietnam did not go to Communist hell after we lost the war.
The Domino Theory and the stupidity of the logic “fight them over their so we don’t fight them here” are now obvious. We lost the Vietnam war.
Sheehy is stating as fact, something that is unknowable about Korea. There is no way of knowing what would have happened.
But we do know what did happen in Vietnam, Libya, Afghanistan, and Iraq, all foreign policy and monetary disasters.
Regime Change Irony
- In Iran, we have the stupidest regime change in history. By blowing up Iran’s relatively moderate leaders, Trump put a much more hardline regime in place.
- We also have a regime change in the US.
- Iran’s goal at the start of the war was to inflict as much pain on Trump as possible. And they did.
Let’s see what I said regarding point number three.
Mish Flashback March 26, 2026: Trump “Not Sure He’s Willing to Make a Deal with Iran”
“They are begging to make a deal, not me. They’re begging to make a deal.”
Trump Does Not Negotiate
Trump does not negotiate, he demands. And his demands are usually so ridiculous the other side cannot agree to them.
And that’s where we are in this pathetic effort to achieve a deal by demand, when we already had a working deal.
What Are Trump’s Goals?
That’s an interesting question. Trump’s goals change every day if not every minute.
What Are Iran’s Goals?
This one is easy.
Iran’s overriding goal at the moment is “inflict as much pain on Trump as possible”.
Once you understand that simple fact, you understand why Trump is in a very tough spot.
Yet, Trump is sticking with the notion he can end this war in 4-6 weeks. MAGA cheers. And they cheered when Trump said “no more wars.”
They cheered when he said he would release the Epstein files. And they cheered when he refused to do so.
They cheered when Trump said he would cut energy prices in half. And they cheer now when Trump says higher inflation is a “small price to pay”.
Meanwhile, let me remind you Iran’s overriding goal at the moment is “inflict as much pain on Trump as possible”.
Core MAGA can clearly take lots of pain and lies. But the rest of the county won’t.
Mish: March 26, 2026
- Iran’s overriding goal at the moment is “inflict as much pain on Trump as possible”.
- Core MAGA can clearly take lots of pain and lies. But the rest of the county won’t.
Iran succeeded.
Liberation Irony
Here’s Sheehy’s most delusional statement: “The Iranian people will take down this regime as long as we set the conditions for their liberation.“
What a hoot. The absurdity of that statement is obvious to the world. There has never been a regime change in history by force other than complete military victory, except in reverse.
The magnificent irony is US Congress has now been liberated from MAGA Control.
What If Iran Just Honored Obama’s Nuclear Deal?
Please recall my March 25, 2026 post What If Iran Just Honored Obama’s Nuclear Deal? Would We Be at War?
Think carefully before answering. Details below.
Trump’s First Term Flashback
- Trump’s US State Department: Iran honoring the terms.
- Trump’s Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: Iran honoring the terms.
- International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA): Iran honoring the terms.
- Arms Control Association: Iran honoring the terms.
- All US European allies: Iran honoring the terms.
- Every other signee of the accord: Iran honoring the terms.
- Trump’s top general Gen. Joseph Dunford: Iran honoring the terms.
- Trump’s Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis: Iran was complying with the terms of the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal
During his first term, President Trump’s Secretary of Defense, Jim Mattis, stated that Iran was complying with the terms of the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal (JCPOA), despite President Trump’s strong opposition to it.
Key Details on Mattis’ Statement and Context:
- Testimony (October 2017): Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Mattis said, “I believe that [Iran] fundamentally [are] in compliance with its nuclear deal”.
- Contradicting Trump: Mattis, a career hawk, advised that staying in the deal was in the U.S. national security interest, putting him at odds with President Trump’s public criticism of the agreement as an “embarrassment”.
Iran only began stepping back from JCPOA limits (e.g., higher uranium enrichment levels, reduced IAEA access) after Trump unilaterally withdrew in 2018 and reimposed sanctions—not before.
This sequence is well-documented in IAEA reports and international statements that include Trump’s top general and Secretary of Defense.
Mattis Contradicts Trump
NYT Dateline October 3, 2017: Mattis Contradicts Trump on Iran Deal Ahead of Crucial Deadline
Days before President Trump has to make a critical decision on whether to hold up the Iran nuclear deal, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis openly split with him on abandoning the agreement, the second senior member of the president’s national security team to recently contradict him.
Senator Angus King, an independent from Maine, asked whether the defense secretary thought holding onto the nuclear pact is in the interest of the national security of the United States. Mr. Mattis, a retired Marine general, paused before replying: “Yes, senator, I do.”
And at his confirmation hearing in January, Mr. Mattis described the Iran deal as flawed but said the United States should remain committed to it, and to working with the other nations that negotiated it: Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China. “I think it is an imperfect arms control agreement — it’s not a friendship treaty,” Mr. Mattis said at the time. “But when America gives her word, we have to live up to it and work with our allies.”
General Dunford testified at the same hearing alongside Mr. Mattis, and while he did not take a position on the Iran deal, his description about whether Tehran is violating the accord was at odds with the administration’s talking points. He said Iran “is not in material breach” of the agreement and that it had “delayed the development of a nuclear capability by Iran.”
Lesson of the Day, Year, Month, and Century
- The obvious lesson is don’t start stupid wars.
- The second lesson is cut losses if you do start them. Think Afghanistan and Vietnam.
- The third lesson is honor your own deals.
The Iranian leaders were the problem, not the average citizen of Iran. Unquestionably, Trump made matters worse.
We need to rid the country of all the neoncons. The best start would be to impeach Hegseth and vote everyone who still supports this war out of office, starting with Sheehy.
It’s going to happen. May as well get it over with and move on.
Related Posts
November 11, 2026: Hegseth Survives Impeachment Effort in House, for Now Anyway
Hegseth is a war criminal, but this is a good outcome.
March 2, 2026: Hegseth Says the Goal in Iran Isn’t Nation Building, It’s a Peaceful Deal
Please note Hegseth Doesn’t Rule Out U.S. Troops on the Ground.
Amusingly, we still don’t have a goal. If we do, what the hell is it?
Trump never heard of “Be Carefull what you wish for”.
My prediction is that things won’t change. In the end game, we will hear a lot of virtue signaling and yapping. Whiskey Pete will be somewhere unscathed preparing is presidential run, Trump will finish his term, mouth running and the democrat socialists will be put in their place, soapboxes intact with zero results. Aipac will reign, money will determine policy and war will be a constant companion to “our democracy”.
You are right, the odds are very high that nothing will change. It requires the people to demand change for an extended period of time (years), which is unlikely. Particularly if there is sufficient bread (junk food) and circuses (professional sports) to keep them occupied.
“Regime change”? Mish, you have got to be kidding.
Reserve the term “regime change” for when either “communists or libertarians take over” or the list of oligarchs overturns dramatically.
Very few counties did not shift Democrat in the entire country. This isn’t something unique to those Democratic states. This happened in rural America.
I dont know how people call this “regime change”, unless they’re peering through an Overton window the size of a passport photo.
Learn a little about how authors curate their writing to create an audience, and you might learn a thing or several. Or just stay outraged, it’s of no consequence to anyone else here.
So you are saying to be happy about clickbait headlines.
I predicted (in the comments here) when the regime change operation got started after the bombing of the Iranian embassy in Damascus that it would succeed. But in Israel and America.
An irony within the irony is that Evangelical Christians in the USA who socialized this war onto the backs of the entire nation, including Wiccans, Satanists, and atheists instead of relying on their church tithes & offerings, personal funding, and faith in their own god instead of faith in purple-haired Wiccan tax dollars, typically vote Republican and were the #1 culprit in causing the regime change in the USA.
Excellent. Just what the deranged clown deserves as he was the major source of voter discontent, including his many ill-fated actions and policies.
Nice …
Trump and Netanyahu have done a wonderful job of convincing Iran to build long range ballistic missiles equipped with nuclear warheads as we already did with N. Korea. If Israel and the US make the mistake of either hitting Iran nuclear power sites releasing radiation or using “strategic” nuclear explosives there will be hell to pay. The Iranians have already made it abundantly clear they are not someone to fuck with.
Iran was foolish not to have gotten The Bomb long ago.
Scott Colom officially wins Mississippi. Trump turned that state blue. Lol.
Regarding the Iran war, what disgusts me about Americans is their concern is for the price of fuel and no concern for the innocent Iranians dead or injured from direct US actions. This is the same for all US initiated conflict; it’s not death and destruction but collateral damage. In this case, Iran is a made-up enemy with no ability or interest to attack the US. Just more fun and games for the disgusting MIC with the support of almost all politicians and voters.
This is your take, not my take. I care a lot about the deaths in Iran and so do the vast majority of the decent people I associate with. it sounds like you need better friends and family.
if you and your friends gave a fuck they would never vote blue or red. in other words, the warmongering parties. if you gave a fuck you might vote green or libertarian. in spite of most likely losing because the vast majority of amerikans think they are good and have good friends. but in reality they are just nihilists. you really don’t give a fuck. that’s the ugly truth. democracy works. you vote for yourself. been true since ancient greece and roman times. for most old men north of age 25 or 30 it’s almost impossible to come to grips with this truth. you either get it or you don’t. i figured it out in the late 1960s as a child.
>> if you and your friends gave a fuck they would never vote blue or red.
So true.
don’t hate the players, hate the game
Have you cared enough to read that RAND report yet? Watched some old Mearsheimer?
Cared enough to vote for independents like Jill Stein?
Phil and his friends care about Iranian deaths because Trump is bombing them.
Obama increased sanctions on Iran in 2012, reducing medical care and putting millions at risk.
Democrats are fine with death and suffering as long as they are the ones doing it.
I talk to my iranian friends almost every Thursday. I’ll ask them what they think about Obama today. I already know what they’ll say, because they never have much good to say about him.
Tell us more about the horrible things you know about other people. We are here for your tea, spill away, take your best shots.
We are aware of Minab and other atrocities committed by the US/Israel terrorist regime. You’re mistaking MSM silence for civilian acceptance of genocide.
Very well said
the future gain for this nation from this regime change will never offset what just got lost.. the day the music died for good”.
That is a real loser of a take. Nobody likes a defeatist.
Mish, thanks for countering Sheehy’s bovine scatology intelligently.
After the lies of the Gulf of Tonkin, WMD, “we must invade Afghanistan because Afghanistan is asking us for some proof that Osama had something to do with 9/11”, Iran must have a nuclear program hidden somewhere because the same guy who gave us the WMD lie has been saying they do for 30 years… After all these lies to justify another US war, you’d think Americans would be more skeptical.
why would you think amerikans don’t love this shit. democracy works.
i’m kind of thinking trump, will toss elmo musk, out to the wolves……….be a great scalp for the blue team and middle brow amerika, and a wonderful distraction……..as trump goes full bore LBJ and pivots………
Money talks way too potently or that to happen.
Like they just tossed Jensen Huang….total fabricated setup….he must pissed off someone in Washington selling chips to open source AI ops in China.
the CIA and Chinese just fucked him up bigtime. he thought he was god like.
What is with that cheesy jacket?
It was his wife’s idea.
The US deficit for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2026 was about $1.992 Trillion dollars. So basically the government spent $2T more than it took in in one twelve month period. Is that the largest single year deficit in nominal dollars ever? I don’t recall a deficit that large before and all I hear is crickets.
Note: this is from a supposedly fiscally conservative government.
And concerns are raised about how the democrats are going to spend the country into oblivion. However, it is too late the republicans beat them to it.
No matter who is in power how are taxes not going to go up from here?
control print on the NYFED computer keyboard. some intern can handle that task. or trump wires into every amerikan’s bank account a kewl new shiney million or billion trump computer currency. it’s not like we all actually own paper currency or gold coins. i don’t think anyone with half a brain, would ever consider the repugs or donald trump as being fiscally conservative. put down the bong or bottle. this is no time to be so stoned.
More inflation baked in
sounds like the people of montana have elected a perfect reflection of themselves. dumbfuck warmongers who think we should rule the world.
Gene pool is pretty shallow up that way…
where men are men and the sheep are afraid. it’s coast to coast fucking idiots. i have lived all over this great pax dumbfuckistan.
Sheehy is a great example of the Hubris and Ignorance of many US citizens who believe a bunch of self aggrandizing bullshit
exactly
And grand irony of ironies, Vietnam turned into a juggernaut economy after Trump started China tariff tirade. Nam is pushing to get more digital nomads in and people are moving there, yeah a “communist” country.
https://youtu.be/jt7PMA3KYUI
3-star Mishelin award for post that makes the case for exit strategy because these neocon morons will never learn until America is bankrupt and collapses from the heavy weight of stupid leaders.
we eyewitnessed the last evil empire to crumble. ussr. it was quite exciting actually. not what most back in amerika understood. great opportunities too. i suspect the same will be here…………as this evil empire is collapsing…………
.
Any war of national liberation is against the comprador classes and their international enablers. This has been true since the dawn of history: Any suzerain could only raise an army if they thought they would get back their land from the nobility — otherwise it didn’t particularly matter to them who owned the land and collected rents.
There is never a national liberation movement that recruits fighters by telling them that upon victory, the ownership class will be restored and oligarch capitalism will carry the day.
Read a story about socialist and communist partisans defeating and jailing compradors that helped the ww2 fascists. USUK forces came in, freed the inmates, and put them back in charge of local affairs.
“Amusingly, we still don’t have a goal. If we do, what the hell is it?”
Make sure Israel doesn’t release pictures of Trump with underage girls?
As freaked out as he is about it, wouldn’t surprise me to find little boys in the mix.
correct. raping little girls or boys is not about normal human sexual attractiveness. it’s just violence. end of story. read some books on the subject. talk to some prison and criminal psychiatrists………..
He sure seems interested in men’s asses of late…
aye aye. his degeneracy is losing it’s filter as he is transitioning to losing his mind as an old geezer…….we all know old men and women who have no filters………..should be a hoot the next few years…….
Do we really need to try to get into that head to learn he’s been a thug all his life? In the 1980s, he spoke on camera about wanting to invade iran. “Just take kharg island” with not even an attempt at justification.
No blackmail needed. This is whom many people voted for. They should be even more embarrassed and never vote again. Just like Biden voters, who similarly rewarded that USA-Iraq war criminal with his own election to POTUS.
“Barbarians”
Clearly this guy ain’t ever been to the inner city in a place like Baltimore, Chicago, or L.A.
or MAGA shady trailer park in eastern KY
Just because they have all their teeth don’t mean they’re gonna bite ya.
those poor bastards in eastern KY. i knew a bunch of decent young teenage guys there from the 1980s and 90s. many are in prison, dead, or meth heads………..most are welfare queens of course. the water is undrinkable these days……….watch the recent joe rogan podcast……..
I met some of the sweetest people ever there, and saw a lot of extremely messed up ones hanging about.
eastern KY probably has the nicest people i’ve ever met in usa. if i told you what they did for me and my family i don’t think people would believe it. the folks my age there, mid 60s, reminded me of my grandparents……..back when i was in my 20s.
I’m from east Tennessee, right across the Kentucky border, and there are some legit nice people there, but they get brainwashed in their churches to commit violence against men, women, and children.
Yesterday was Veterans Day in the USA and even though I live in Asia, I still noticed all of the Veterans Day fanfare on facebook. Some legit supernice guys I went to school with back in the ’80s and ’90s were posting photos of their fathers, how they volunteered for the Marines to go to Vietnam. I quietly wondered if any of the mixed-race women I’ve dated in southern Vietnam over the years are half-sisters of my school buddies.
War proponents have to trot out the same old tropes, and Mish masterfully took them apart one by one.
I think Trump wanted to make a splash and mark his name in the books (making him an easy plaything for the perennial Iran war cries of the usual suspects). Trump of course ignored the annoying complexities of reality, launching a few flashy popguns against a nation of 90+ million people, and expecting them to just fold (as has never happened with conventional aerial bombardment, excluding maybe Kosovo). This was the same as Rumsfeld’s folly in Iraq: “shock and awe” would do it in a few weeks, and bingo, all those Iraqi kids would release centuries of culture, and be wearing backward hats at the new local burger joint. These idiots never read history seriously, when their grandiose egos seize the wheel.
That leaves two non-losing large-scale US wars since WW2, and those merely ended in stalemate: Korea and Gulf War 1. North Korea has been around now longer than revolutionary Iran.
The War On Iraq worked exactly as intended, in that it turned Iraq into a failed state and thus no threat to Israel.
Ignore the Eagle Flag Freedom bullshit rhetoric. Ignore what they say. Pay attention to what they do – Libya, Syria and now Iran.
Yup. The NY Federal Reserve receives all Iraqi oil money.
the NYFED is my favorite scam in all the land. everytime i walk past it, i touch it and LOL. i liked when you could tour the gold 8 floors below surface on the granite bedrock. below sea level. only other place that compared to me was the “hermitage”. the winter palace for the czars. a shit ton of gold there. gold horse carriages. i LOL at the NYFED. the creature from jekyll island, for the smart chaps on mish site.
Mish, the US did inact regime change in Iran in 1953 when Kermit Roosevelt in the CIA lead Operation Ajax to over throw the democratically elected Mosaddegh and put the Shah in power.
YUP. i’m not proud to say our family made big dinero from the shah as he spread his riches into lower manhattan. wall street in particular. all my idiot pals in the 1960s and 1970s growing up had no clue who the shah or what persia was. yes, the amerikan people are that fucking stoooopid.
Another cunning plan that worked out fabulously.
Yes by covert force – same as stupidity in Ukraine. not external pressure or bombing from afar. How do we rate those two: Neocon successes or total failure.
Street Violence & Military Force
Kermit was Teddy Roosevelt’s grandson.
It’s good to see the good guys winning for a change.
You mean the commies?
You oughta know! You take your marching orders from Vladimir! How’s the weather at the bot farm in St. Petersburg?
“we still refer to it as leningrad”. my ex soviet MD in brooklyn said this to me with a straight face about 3 years ago.
Tsar Nicholas was building up a massive secret police, and Lenin just picked it up with new labels. Ultimate symbol of the bonfire of the idealists while the new boss exceeds the old. Stalin on top of that. Guys like that would puff their pipes and Trump would be swept away.
Lenin was sent by the Germans to undermine the Russian Empire. SO ironic…….that the USSR 30 years later laid waste germany
Just because trump acts cordial around some successful people like xi or Putin doesnt mean he’s anything but jealous and play acting as he plots how to stab them.
Peterburg is in the Leningrad oblast nowadays.
thats fucking funny.
if the Republicans and Democrats can’t do the job, don’t be surprised if the DSA and Libertarians become ascendant.
the ‘commies’ isn’t going to work for you like it used to.
i’m libertarian and vote that way for federal offices. but let’s be real. i might as well tell people i’m a fucking martian. nobody gives a fuck about classical liberals/libertarians. i vote similar in italia too. amerikans are 95% warmongering imperial cunts. reds and blues.
1. The goal ever always only was to turn Iran into a failed state at the behest of Israel, much as was done to Iraq and Syria.
2. The Uniparty remains firmly in control.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2026/11/the-spook-wave-elections-usher-in-more-democrat-military-intelligence-vets.html
Found on internet:
“A follow-up: Ryan Grim reports on Breaking Points that 8 of the Hegseth 11 were attending a cocktail hour at a swanky DC locale. It was hosted by Elect Democratic Women, an AIPAC pass-through founded by the current Democratic Whip. The cocktail hour ran from 4:30 to 6:30, while the House vote began at 5:30. The venue was on the White House end of Pennsylvania Avenue, so not exactly some far off point.
A maneuver worthy of the “villain of the day” as the public option was being axed or the Manchin/Sinema games during Biden. This one was on behalf of Israel, though.
Just one point: this is such SOP, but I do remember one time when these games were not so prevalent, and that was post 1/6. Maybe Jefferson had a point”
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2026/11/links-11-11-2026.html
Great info. I like the Breaking Points podcast, a lot of great material and commentary.
read the book “this town”. you will realize it’s always been one big party. pro wrestling is more real.
Indeed, the blue wave produced a House of Rep. with 331 Congressmen with AIPAC handlers.
Yeah
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss
Yes, among many things that aren’t changing, that’s one of them. This isnt “regime change”.