‘Mess Around and Find Out’: 4 Opinion Writers on the Khamenei Strike

By David FrenchNicholas KristofBret StephensMegan K. Stack and Stephen Stromberg

The United States and Israel conducted airstrikes on Iran early on Saturday, and President Trump announced that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, was killed. Stephen Stromberg, an editor in Opinion, convened the Opinion columnists David French, Nicholas Kristof and Bret Stephens and the Opinion contributing writer Megan K. Stack for a written discussion about the attack and its implications.

Stephen Stromberg: Trump says Iran’s supreme leader is dead. How should we feel about the potential for regime change?

Megan K. Stack: I fail to see how creating a political vacuum that could evolve in countless, unpredictable ways is expected to make anyone safer. There’s some vague idea that the Iranian people are all opposed to their government and will come together to create a new government. I don’t think history supports that expectation. Our leaders don’t seem to have learned anything from U.S. interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. Sure, the U.S. military can kill all the leadership. And then what?

Nicholas Kristof: One risk is that Iran’s militant Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps takes over. That might be worse. There’s also some danger that Iran simply fragments; regional leaders worry about this. To me, it feels like an echo of the 2003 Iraq invasion: Once again, we’ve relied on manipulated intelligence to launch a war with vast aims to reshape the Middle East and little assurance of success — but great risks and costs.

Bret Stephens: I urge anyone reading this conversation to spend a few minutes watching this Times Opinion video created by the journalists Roxana Saberi and Fatemeh Jamalpour, who collected images taken by Iranian doctors and medical personnel documenting the unimaginable brutality they experienced last month at the hands of this regime. Right now, there’s a worldwide protest movement against Israel on account of an estimated 70,000 Palestinians, militants and civilians killed in Gaza over more than two years of combat. The Iranian regime killed an estimated 30,000 unarmed civilians in two days — to little apparent outrage among many of the same people protesting Israel. That’s why you read reports of ordinary Iranians looking to the skies and hoping the United States and Israel will strike.

I don’t doubt that this campaign is going to entail grave risks for Iranians, and Megan’s and Nick’s warnings should be taken seriously. But we also need to be mindful that those same Iranians are running grave risks just by living under the current regime.

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David French is an Opinion columnist, writing about law, culture, religion and armed conflict. He is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and a former constitutional litigator. His most recent book is “Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation.” You can follow him on Threads (@davidfrenchjag).

Nicholas Kristof became a columnist for The Times Opinion desk in 2001 and has won two Pulitzer Prizes. His new memoir is “Chasing Hope: A Reporter's Life.” @NickKristof

Bret Stephens is an Opinion columnist for The Times, writing about foreign policy, domestic politics and cultural issues. Facebook

Megan K. Stack is a contributing Opinion writer. She has been a correspondent in China, Russia, Egypt, Israel, Afghanistan and the U.S.-Mexico border area. Her first book, a narrative account of the post-Sept. 11 wars, was a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction. @Megankstack

Stephen Stromberg is a Times opinion editor, focused on politics and economics. He has covered U.S. politics and policy since 2001. He joined The Times in 2025 from The Washington Post, where he was deputy editor of the opinion section.

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