Regime change is a fantasy sold as realism. You strike leadership targets and imagine a grateful successor will appear, but power vacuums do not fill themselves with virtue. On 28 Feb 2026 the operation was pitched as removing threats, yet the method risks turning a political problem into a civilisational feud. The mechanism is predictable: humiliation hardens identity, hardened identity rewards extremists, extremists sabotage any compromise as betrayal. You may weaken missiles and air defences, but you also teach every rival that only force earns attention. If you want order, you need institutions, not just explosions, and institutions cannot be bombed into existence. This may still be lawful to some and thrilling to others, but it is a dangerous way to build a future.