Iran's new leader is keeping a list for revenge

It’s been two weeks since President Donald Trump ordered a bolt-from-the-blue missile strike to assassinate Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei. Now, the murdered man’s son has taken over. That’s convenient for those of us struggling to follow this unwanted insanity, because at least the new boss has the same name.

The new Ayatollah Khamenei — full name Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei, age 56 — was badly injured in the same sneak attack that blew apart his father. He reportedly suffered wounds to both legs and one arm and has not been seen in public since. In addition to recuperating, he’s no doubt mourning: We murdered not only his father, but also his wife, his teenage son, his mother, his sister and his 14-month-old niece.

Iran has lashed out in response against our bases and forces throughout the Middle East. So far, the Pentagon says, 14 U.S. soldiers have been killed and more than 150 wounded, some of them severely. Of those 150 wounded, how many have had life-wrecking injuries — loss of vision, loss of limbs, severe traumatic brain injuries? Why did we even provoke this mess?

Now, the murdered man’s son has taken over. Expect worse to come. The new ayatollah has promised more revenge against us (i.e., “the enemy”) for the suffering we’ve chosen to inflict upon Iran. “Every member of the nation who is killed by the enemy becomes a separate case in the file of retaliation,” he said.

Sounds ominous, especially when Khamenei particularly singled out the way we Tomahawk’d a bunch of elementary schoolgirls, leaving more than 175 dead, as holding “a special status in the process of accountability.” Until retribution has been had for these murdered children, ages 7 to 12, he said, “this file will remain open above other cases.”

Already our two weeks of U.S. and Israeli bombing have killed more than 1,200 civilians (including more than 200 children). We’ve destroyed more than 17,000 homes and, per the United Nations, displaced more than 3.2 million people (many of whom have fled areas like Tehran that are being heavily bombed).

“Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today,” Truthsocial’d our gleeful president going into the weekend. He says the Iranians have “been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years,” and went on, “and now I, as the 47th President … am killing them. What a great honor it is to do so!”

Yes, the president has been in fine form. It is his great honor to be killing them. These deranged scumbags. The ones whom he sneak-attacked and murdered, with a couple of hundred children caught up in his wild crossfire.

On Sunday, the president was boasting about how we just demolished infrastructure at Kharg Island, an oil transport hub in the Persian Gulf just off Iran’s coast. “We may hit it a few more times just for fun,” Trump told NBC News.

I picture him saying these things with a thick, vaguely European accent, maybe while wearing a monocle. Is he even aware how he sounds? Is he putzing around the White House in a motorized wheelchair with a blue-eyed Persian cat on his lap?

His jaunty Truth Social posts feel like the equivalent of the scene in a bad movie where the evil mastermind offers his unforced confession — where he lays out the entire dastardly scheme to a captured audience. If only we could walk out of this movie.

-Matt Bivens, Truthdig, the following story is co-published with Matt Bivens’ Substack newsletter, The 100 Days.