00:00What is Trump's endgame in Iran?
00:02Its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in an Israeli-U.S. attack
00:06that has unleashed a range of retaliatory strikes throughout the Middle East.
00:10Now, U.S. President Donald Trump is saying he will unleash on Iran force that has never been seen before.
00:17After months of shifting rationales, Trump, in his speech on Saturday, laid out several of Washington's objectives.
00:24Prevent Iran from having any nuclear weapons,
00:26obliterate Iran's ballistic missile program,
00:29annihilate its navy,
00:31remove the Revolutionary Guard's threat,
00:33and most notably,
00:34allow the Iranian people to rise up and overthrow the government.
00:37But, is regime change really achievable with airstrikes?
00:41Airstrikes have not historically been the best way to finalize what happens on the ground.
00:47So far, I don't see the means being used to the scale that would achieve those goals.
00:53Iran has confirmed Khamenei's death.
00:55But remember, the country's regime, with its complex power structure,
01:00has survived nearly half a century, despite countless crises and foreign interventions.
01:04They have built up a government system that is designed to be resilient in the face of assassinations,
01:10designed to be coup-proof.
01:12Even if you kill, for instance, their political leaders, quote-unquote,
01:17the Iranian Revolutionary Guards might take over the government.
01:21We might end up with a more hostile government at the end of these attacks.
01:26So, what is Trump's goal here?
01:28At least, preliminarily, regime change.
01:31When we are finished, take over your government.
01:33It will be yours to take.
01:35Trump also called on members of the Iranian military to lay down their arms,
01:40promising them amnesty.
01:42But experts say it's much more complicated.
01:45For the bulk of the troops, you know, they're under threat of death
01:48if they do something that their leadership doesn't like at any given moment.
01:51The Iranian military and the IRGC are prepared to use horrible lethal force
01:57to put down any sort of uprising.
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