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NOT TIRED OF WINNING: 3 Historic Geopolitical Victories in Operation Epic Fury

President Donald Trump on March 02. (The White House X Account/Anadolu/Getty Images)

Tyler O'Neil / @Tyler2ONeil

Tyler O'Neil is senior editor at The Daily Signal and the author of two books: "Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center," and "The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government."

President Donald Trump’s military response to Iran’s decades-long war against the United States has already reaped massive dividends in its first week.

On America’s 250th anniversary, Trump isn’t just reshaping the Middle East—he’s reshaping the global balance of power and strengthening the United States’ position.

“Operation Epic Fury” has already yielded three massive victories in the first week.

Trump announced Tuesday that the U.S. and Israeli military strikes had killed 49 leaders of Iran, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The strikes killed other key leaders, such as Defense Minister Amir Nasirzadeh, Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Commander Mohammed Pakpour, former National Defense Council head Ali Shamkani, and armed forces Chief of Staff Abdolrahim Mousavi.

Israel’s Air Force also struck the building housing the Assembly of Experts in Qom—the group of 88 clerics responsible for electing the next supreme leader.

Unfortunately, knocking out key regime leaders won’t necessarily doom the Islamic Republic. Just as Trump’s successful operation to extricate Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro did not result in immediate regime change, so the decapitation of Tehran doesn’t guarantee a new form of government. Iran is a much larger country than Venezuela, and its regime has a stronger foothold.

Even so, the Islamic Republic appears to be flailing. Iran didn’t just send missiles to hit Israeli and American targets—it has also targeted Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Iranian drones have even attacked Iran’s northern neighbor Azerbaijan, though the Islamic Republic’s foreign ministry denied carrying out the attack.

Whether or not Operation Epic Fury topples the Iran regime, it will leave a weakened Iran and, likely, a safer Middle East once the conflict draws to a close.

Iran has long supported proxy forces in other countries, backing Shia militias in Iraq, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah, long considered Iraq’s most effective proxy force, acted as a likely deterrent to any Israeli attack on Iran.

Israel has fought multiple wars with Hezbollah, often invading Lebanese territory to respond to the terrorist group’s attacks.

Hezbollah maintained an army larger than that of Lebanon, and long operated as a state within a state—a de facto independent government that effectively held the Lebanese government hostage.

After the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, Israel decimated Hezbollah’s leadership by rigging their pagers to explode in September 2024.

Hezbollah had reached a ceasefire agreement with Israel last year, but the terrorist group responded to Operation Epic Fury by launching rockets into northern Israel earlier this week.

Then something truly remarkable happened: the Lebanese government turned on Hezbollah. It announced “the immediate ban of all Hezbollah security and military activities,” and demanded Hezbollah surrender its weapons.

While some analysts faulted Lebanon’s measures as “half-hearted,” they still represent a remarkable sea change.

Lebanon had often opposed Israel, seeing Israel as the invading aggressor and Hezbollah as a military force protecting Lebanon. Now, Lebanon is turning on Hezbollah and asserting itself against this Iranian proxy that seems determined to bring Lebanon into a wider war.

If Lebanon can disarm Hezbollah, that will go a long way toward restoring its integrity as an independent country—and protect Israel from one of its nastiest rivals.

While Russia and China, America’s two largest rivals on the global stage, have signaled support for Iran, they have remained largely disengaged from the conflict. Meanwhile, Trump’s moves in both Venezuela and Iran have separated Russia and China from major oil producers.

Russia and Iran signed a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty in January 2025, and the countries carried out joint military drills in the Indian Ocean as late as February. Yet the treaty does not include a mutual defense clause, so Moscow had no obligation to engage militarily when Tehran faced U.S. and Israeli strikes.

Andrey Kortunov, former director general of the Russian International Affairs Council, told Al Jazeera that the risks of joining the war on Iran’s side would be too high. While Russia is providing Iran intelligence to target the U.S. in the region, it seems unlikely to get engaged beyond that.

China signed a 25-year cooperation agreement with Iran in 2021, drawing Tehran into China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Yet China has also developed ties with the Persian Gulf states. In 2023, Chinese leader Xi Jinping brokered normalization between Saudi Arabia and Iran, aiming to stabilize the Persian Gulf, from which most of China’s oil comes.

Around 50% of China’s oil comes from Arab nations like Saudi Arabia, while only roughly 17% comes from the Islamic Republic that just attacked Saudi Arabia.

Both Russian and Chinese leaders have condemned the strikes and called for a ceasefire, but escalation seems largely limited to the Middle East.

The U.S. and Israel took a bold gamble in Iran this week, and so far the results have been remarkably positive. The strikes have decapitated Iran’s leadership, led Lebanon to oppose Hezbollah, and put China between a rock and a hard place when it comes to oil diplomacy.

The war is just beginning, but America and Israel have achieved truly historic successes. Let’s pray these are early signs of more victories to come—and ultimately harbingers of a lasting peace.

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Read the first chapter of The Woketopus right now for FREE

Today, even with President Trump’s victory, leftist elites have their tentacles in every aspect of our government.

The Daily Signal’s own Tyler O’Neil exposes this leftist cabal in his new book, The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government.

In this book, O’Neil reveals how the Left’s NGO apparatus pursues its woke agenda, maneuvering like an octopus by circumventing Congress and entrenching its interests in the federal government.

You can read the first chapter of this new book for FREE in this eBook, The Woketopus: Chapter One using the secure link below.

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