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Source: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/will-trump-finish-the-job-in-iran-75ee8e83
Will Trump Finish the Job in Iran?
(Wall Street Journal) Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh - The degradation of the Islamic Republic as a military and nuclear power has been enormous and is likely irreversible. It will take years, perhaps decades, for the clerical regime - if it survives - to rebuild. What seems accepted wisdom in Washington - that Iran wins in a longer war - is surely militarily untrue. The Islamic Republic that emerges from this war will be a more ideologically strident regime that is even less skilled at governing. Iran is a collection of competing mafias, and the quest for spoils will likely intensify. The new guardians of the theocratic regime have no solutions to the country's problems. Iran's economic stagnation has worsened with a war that has devastated much of its infrastructure and may soon crater the oil industry. Its military is shattered and its treasury depleted. The one certainty of Iranian politics is that there will be another popular insurrection. Large portions of all social classes remain united in their disdain for this regime. The correlation of forces still favors the mullahs, but the Americans and Israelis have given the Iranian people their best chance at regime change. Mr. Gerecht is a resident scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Mr. Takeyh is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.