John Bolton Just Wishes Trump Bombed Iran Sooner

"Well, I wish I had persuaded him in his first term, because a lot of pain and agony might've been avoided. What we've seen since the October 7 Hamas attack is that Iran's terrorist surrogates have been very badly harmed by Israel in response. But had we overthrown the Iranian regime in the first term, perhaps October 7 never would've happened."

"The opposition is very widespread inside Iran, but it's not well-organized. Pieces of it are; I think the Kurds are a good example of that, but the popular dissatisfaction is so widespread that it makes it hard to have much organization in a totalitarian society. So it's going to take a lot of effort and there's going to have to be a lot of ad hoc decisions being made on the ground."

President Trump's military action against Iran has created a split among his supporters. Some voters who backed his anti-war campaign promises are upset by the bombing campaign, which has resulted in significant costs and casualties. Conversely, neoconservative hawks, particularly John Bolton, view the military action favorably as it aligns with their decades-long advocacy for regime change in Iran. Bolton, Trump's former national security adviser, expresses regret that regime change was not accomplished during the first term, arguing it could have prevented subsequent regional conflicts. The Iranian opposition exists but lacks organization within the totalitarian state, requiring extensive coordination efforts and intelligence operations to support potential regime change initiatives.

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