Nancy Youssef

Well, it's an interesting question because this started at 2.30 in the morning in terms of presidential statements, which he made from a Truth Social video, that this was for the Iranian people.

And I think there were a lot of Iranian people who welcomed it and even still welcomed it because there was such profound frustration with the regime.

We had seen massive protests in the run-up to this in December and January.

and real threats to the durability of the regime.

But over time, not only through the strikes, but through the rhetoric we heard from the US, I think we saw an administration that conflated the regime and the people.

And we use this phrase sort of hearts and minds, and maybe people are quick to dismiss it.

But if the objective was to get the Iranian people to rise up and to challenge the government, it's very hard to get that kind of mobilization when you're also attacking them.

And

making what they saw as derogatory comments about their religion on Easter Sunday and all these things.

And so I think for some Iranians, we heard about real splits within the diaspora.

But internally, I think there was a real struggle between those who both found themselves stuck with a regime that they didn't want and a war that was conducted in a way that they didn't want.

Can I jump in, Adam?

Because Tom made so many great points, and I want to just build on a couple of them.

The firings, we've had a lot of generals and admirals fired, including the head of the army during this conflict.

Now, usually when a general admiral is fired during wars for the conduct of the war, that didn't appear to be the case in this instance.

This was personal animosity, a secretary who was micromanaging personnel decisions in the army, looking to put his own stamp on that service.

And while this was largely a war from the air and sea, the army had an important role.

The air defenses that you heard about, the Patriots and the Thads, those are army operated system.

Restocking the munitions that were used for them, it falls on the army chief of staff and he was fired during this conflict.

And so I think that's important to note, just the pace at which these personnel changes were happening.