Dr. Trita Parsi

In fact, one thing that has happened that probably will make it more difficult for that type of sentiment to grow is that you had this bombing of this girl's school in Hormuzgan province in Iran in which about 50 or so children were killed.

Now, in a war, unfortunately, these things do happen.

Statistically, if this were to go on for a month, it would almost certainly have happened.

The fact that it happened on the first day, I think is very significant.

This is different if it had happened on day 21 after a large number of leaders of the state apparatus had been assassinated.

And then this happened.

It would happen in a different context then.

But this happened on the first day before any of those other people of any significance had been killed.

And I think that also puts...

an impression in the minds of most Ibanians what this actually is, what the cost of this is, that this is not some of these romanticized views of war that is now being spewed by some exiled pretenders to a throne or pretenders to power who are portraying this as if this would be some sort of an honorable war while they're themselves sitting

in Maryland and enjoying their daily lives.

So I think that in itself has had and will have a psychological impact on what the fallout will be if you start seeing that key people within the state apparatus are killed.

The other thing that I think is also very important to keep in mind here

is that by all accounts that I've spoken to, the Supreme Leader is seen by many as an obstacle inside of Iran.

For those who actually want to strike back much harder, who believe that the Iranians committed a mistake by responding so politely to previous attacks, to Israeli attacks, waited for too long in this strategy called strategic patience,

They view Khamenei as an obstacle for what they would want to have done, which is strike back harder or even go for a nuclear weapon.

And for those who wanted to have a much more aggressive diplomatic approach, which would have included direct negotiations with Trump himself, which I think could have made a difference in all of this if it had been done earlier, they also see him as an obstacle because he's been too adamant about not taking that step.

If he is taken out and there's a different leader taking power or if it's a council, etc., it also means that some of those questions will be revisited and Iran may go in a very different direction, one that perhaps is not at all to the liking of the United States.

I'm really trying to wrap my head around that.

We do know, for instance, that they did try to target the house, the empty house of the former president Ahmadinejad.