Subject: justifying the chaos option
Turned on the TV for the noon news, and caught the tail end of Trump talking to the press. He said something that I had not heard reported, but he, apparently, said it Sunday evening.

They are all dead! Trump says US-identified candidates to lead Iran after Khamenei were killed in initial strike

Donald Trump revealed on Sunday evening that the United States had identified potential successors to lead Iran following the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — but that those very candidates were eliminated in the opening salvo of the joint American-Israeli assault, leaving Tehran without an obvious heir to its theocratic leadership.

"The attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates," Trump told Karl. “It's not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead. Second or third place is dead.”

https://www.livemint.com/news/...

That feeds us back to the two alternatives discussed earlier: that the US and Israel can jam "Prince Reza" down their throat, or leave a failed state full of warring groups, in the rubble.

Steve