U.S. Could Consider Limited Military Strikes Against Iranian Regime, Says Former Congressman

The United States may be contemplating limited military strikes against key infrastructure of the Iranian regime to bolster the country’s growing protest movement, according to former Republican congressman Don Ritter in recent comments to Ukrinform.

As civil unrest continues to grip Iran, human rights organizations report that approximately 500 people have been killed and thousands arrested during widespread demonstrations. “If 500 people have been killed, maybe there are four or five thousand people wounded,” Ritter noted, highlighting the escalating humanitarian crisis.

According to Ritter, the Biden administration is actively discussing options to support the Iranian populace. He suggested that military action could target strategic regime assets rather than deploying ground forces.

“I think military force meaning not necessarily soldiers going into mayhem, but the kind of strikes based on good intelligence as to where the bad guys hang out and where their sources of power are derived from,” he explained.

Potential targets could include the regime’s information and security infrastructure. “The Tasnim headquarters, radio, TV, the whole government propaganda machine would be, I’m thinking, a reasonable target. IRGC headquarters could be a reasonable target,” Ritter stated, referring to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which wields significant political and economic influence in Iran.

Ritter emphasized that any military action would require precision to avoid casualties among those who might potentially defect to the opposition. “You don’t want to kill them — but they wear the same uniforms at the moment,” he cautioned.

The former congressman expressed agreement with controversial statements made by Senator Lindsey Graham, who recently urged the president to “kill the leadership that are killing the people” during a Fox News interview. Ritter characterized such action as an opportunity to “decapitate the monster, and the monster loses its power.”

When questioned about concerns that U.S. military intervention might rally Iranians around the regime, Ritter dismissed such notions as “left-wing idiocy.” He argued that most Iranians do not support the Islamist government that came to power after the 1979 revolution.

“Iran historically was not an Islamist state,” Ritter asserted, adding that a substantial opposition movement has formed within the country. He expressed confidence that there are potential leaders within Iran “who could take leadership and steer Iran to the West, to democracy.”

The former congressman suggested that Iran’s population generally leans toward Western values, particularly among younger generations who have grown disillusioned with the current leadership. “The current authorities, in his words, ‘fooled students,’ which has led to deep disappointment among young people,” he noted.

The ongoing protests in Iran, now entering their second week, represent one of the most significant challenges to the regime in recent years. Human rights activists reported Sunday that more than 10,000 people have been detained in addition to the growing death toll.

Any U.S. military action against Iran would mark a significant escalation in tensions between the two nations, which have remained adversaries since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and subsequent hostage crisis. It would also represent a major shift in U.S. policy, which has primarily relied on economic sanctions to pressure the Iranian government in recent decades.

The situation continues to develop as international observers monitor both the protest movement within Iran and the potential response from Washington and other global powers.