The pattern in Gaza was regime change dressed as counterterrorism: dismantle Hamas, and with it, any Palestinian governing authority capable of resisting Israeli control. Donald Trump confirmed the killing and called it “the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country”—language of regime change, not self-defense. The killing wasn’t an Israeli operation that the United States merely blessed after the fact. The United States has had real leverage to stop this and has largely declined to use it. Second, a congressional investigation into the Khamenei strike could still happen and would matter beyond this one case.