Epoch Times - Regime change in Iran? Gordon Chang weighs in.
Aired: 2026-03-02
Duration: 03:44


=== Americans vs. Unrestricted Warfare (03:39) ===

[00:00:00]  One is that perhaps unusually, right, you know, basically the like or dislike of the Ayatollahs is kind of an 80-20 issue in Iran, from what I understand, i.e. 80% don't like them very much at all, and 20% are pro.
[00:00:18]  But the other fact that comes to my mind is that I don't think there's a lot of appetite in the U.S. electorate for regime change.
[00:00:25]  Now, you know, I don't know, like unpack that for me.
[00:00:29]  That's, of course, true.
[00:00:31]  And we know that.
[00:00:31]  And it's true not only among Democrats, but also among Republicans.
[00:00:36]  President Trump ran on being the no more foreign wars president.
[00:00:41]  But there are times when presidents have to do what is absolutely necessary to protect the American public.
[00:00:48]  You go back to Tocqueville, talked about how democracies are very slow to recognize threats, very slow to go to war.
[00:00:54]  And that's true.
[00:00:56]  You know, we've had a string of political scientists who have told us that, and that's absolutely true.
[00:01:03]  We ignored Osama bin Laden.
[00:01:05]  We ignored him after he killed six Americans by bombing the North Tower of the World Trade Center in February 1993.
[00:01:12]  We ignored him until one day when he reached out and killed 2,977 Americans.
[00:01:19]  And then we said, well, how did that happen?
[00:01:22]  Well, that's the nature of our democracy.
[00:01:24]  And yes, I understand that it is unpopular.
[00:01:28]  But that's the way we end up in situations where many Americans get killed.
[00:01:34]  World War II in Europe could have been avoided if Britain and France had exerted their power in 1936 and stopped the Third Reich from remilitarizing the Rhineland.
[00:01:46]  So we know that tens of millions died because Britain and France could not rouse themselves to do what was absolutely necessary.
[00:01:54]  Well, we're the Britain and France of this century until, of course, President Trump decided, no, we were not going to allow these threats to gather.
[00:02:04]  And I think that this is a profiles encouraged moment for the president.
[00:02:11]  Well, you know, it's interesting, you know, peace through strength, right?
[00:02:14]  That has also been the president's mantra, I think, throughout.
[00:02:20]  And I mean, I think the president would probably argue that this is an exercise of that.
[00:02:27]  Yes, and it certainly is.
[00:02:31]  He's ensuring peace in the long term because, among other things, he has started a chain of events that probably will lead to the end of the Iranian regime.
[00:02:43]  And he's, again, encircling the cities from the countryside, which is an important thing for us to do.
[00:02:50]  We Americans don't understand that we are in an existential struggle with the Communist Party.
[00:02:56]  We don't want to think that.
[00:02:58]  But remember, the party has declared a people's war on us.
[00:03:02]  That was a landmark editorial in People's Daily, the most authoritative publication in China in May 2019.
[00:03:10]  And we Americans, we just look at that and say, that's propaganda.
[00:03:15]  We can ignore it.
[00:03:16]  But that's a mistake.
[00:03:18]  It's a mistake because with its strident anti-Americanism, the party is trying to create a justification to strike America.
[00:03:25]  And by the way, as a footnote, In March of 2023, PLA Daily, which is the main propaganda organ of the Chinese military, defined people's war as, quote, total war.

=== China's Doctrine of Unrestricted Warfare (00:05) ===

[00:03:39]  So we know China has a doctrine of unrestricted warfare.
[00:03:42]  It has been killing Americans.