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Iran: Last on the List, and Now at War

Evidence rating: CONFIRMED that Iran was the last name on the list General Wesley Clark described ("finishing off, Iran"), that Israel and the United States bombed Iran in June 2025, and that the two countries have been at war with Iran since February 28, 2026. CONFIRMED that U.S. intelligence assessed in March 2025 that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon, and that Pentagon briefers told Congress in March 2026 there was no intelligence Iran was about to strike the United States first. STRONG that the war fulfils a goal Israeli leaders set decades ago, and that it is heading toward the ground war and the American soldiers that Israeli voices have openly called for.

In one paragraph​

Iran is the end of the list. Clark said the Pentagon memo he was told about after 9/11 described "how we're going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran" (Democracy Now, March 2, 2007). In 1996 the Clean Break paper named Iran with Hizballah and Syria as "principal agents of aggression." Two days after meeting the paper's study leader, Benjamin Netanyahu told the U.S. Congress: "The most dangerous of these regimes is Iran." In 2002 Israel's leaders told Washington that Iran, not Iraq, was the enemy. One by one the other six were broken. On December 8, 2024, the day Syria's government fell, one post summed it up: "7 countries. Only Iran is left" (@ivan_8848 on X). Six months later the bombs fell on Iran. As one post put it on February 28, 2026: "THE FINAL TARGET HIT: IRAN STRUCK – WESLEY CLARK'S 7-COUNTRY PLAN NOW COMPLETE" (@triffic_stuff_ on X).

Iran on the list from the start​

  • 1996, A Clean Break: "engaging Hizballah, Syria, and Iran, as the principal agents of aggression in Lebanon." Its strategy was "severing the Shia-Syrian-Iranian axis."
  • July 10, 1996, Netanyahu to a joint session of Congress: "The most dangerous of these regimes is Iran," as journalist Craig Unger reported it (Vanity Fair, March 2007).
  • 2000, PNAC's Rebuilding America's Defenses: "Over the long term, Iran may well prove as large a threat to U.S. interests in the Gulf as Iraq has."
  • September 20, 2001, PNAC to Bush: if "Iran and Syria" do not cut off Hezbollah, "consider appropriate measures of retaliation."
  • Fall 2001, the memo: "finishing off, Iran."
  • January 29, 2002, the "Axis of Evil" speech. Rep. Ike Skelton, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, read it as a "declaration of war" (Shivan Mahendrarajah on X, January 29, 2026).
  • February 7, 2002. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warned President Bush that war against Iraq would "unleash chaos and empower Iran." Paul Wolfowitz: "many Israeli leaders, including most importantly then PM Sharon, wanted the US to focus on Iran, not Iraq." Lawrence Wilkerson: "the Israelis were telling us Iraq is not the enemy — Iran is the enemy" (as quoted by Newsmax, reposted by @John_Rossomando, October 16, 2025).
  • 2007. Clark: Iranians "knew that they were next on the hit list," and the administration had "asked Congress to appropriate $75 million" for regime change in Iran (Democracy Now).
  • 2009. A Brookings Institution study, Which Path to Persia?, included a chapter titled "Leave it to Bibi," on encouraging an Israeli strike on Iran (@kelevitch on X, March 18, 2026).

What the intelligence said​

The public was told Iran was about to get a bomb. The intelligence said otherwise:

  • March 25, 2025, the U.S. intelligence community's Annual Threat Assessment: "We continue to assess Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and that Khamenei has not reauthorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003" (Preston Stewart on X, June 21, 2025).
  • March 31, 2025, Ali Larijani, adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader: "We are not moving towards (nuclear) weapons, but if you do something wrong in the Iranian nuclear issue, you will force Iran to move towards that because it has to defend itself" (@MenchOsint on X).
  • About March 1, 2026, the day after the war began, Pentagon briefers told congressional staff that Iran "was not planning to strike US forces or bases in the Middle East unless Israel attacked Iran first." Senator Mark Warner: "I saw no intelligence that Iran was on the verge of launching any kind of preemptive strike against the United States of America." Asked "None?" he said "None" (X trending summary, March 1, 2026).

In March 2026 Joe Kent, head of the National Counterterrorism Center, said that Israeli officials and the Israeli lobby in Washington "manipulated intelligence" to push the Trump administration to treat Iran as a threat "when they weren't" (video posted by @1stclassclips, March 18, 2026). It is the Iraq pattern again. See From the Iraq case to the Iran case.

The strikes and the war​

In short (full timeline on the next page down):

  • June 13, 2025: Israel attacked Iran, opening what became known as the Twelve-Day War.
  • June 17, 2025: the White House called an Israeli Channel 14 report that American aircraft had joined the strikes "false news" (@SilentlySirs on X).
  • June 22, 2025: five days later, U.S. B-2 bombers struck Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.
  • June 26, 2025: the White House said the strikes rested on "15+ years of meticulous planning" (White House Rapid Response on X).
  • February 28, 2026: the U.S. (Operation Epic Fury) and Israel began a joint war on Iran. An Israeli official told Axios that Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had been killed.
  • 2026: Pentagon comptroller Jules Hurst told a Senate hearing the war had cost $29 billion, up from $25 billion (Middle East Monitor on Threads). The Intercept reported a new Pentagon method of counting U.S. casualties that a government official said was "designed to obscure the count" (The Intercept, August 4, 2026).

Go deeper: The Iran strikes and war, 2025–2026, step by step

Israel opens, America finishes​

David Wurmser, principal author of the 1996 Clean Break paper, described the June 2025 war in November 2025: "Israel did 12 days of clearing the deck so that we could get the job done with minimal effort" (Comedy Cellar podcast, November 7, 2025). An unnamed "senior Israeli war planner" told Commentary magazine: "after October 7 we focused on a broader war against Iran, not just its nuclear program or missiles," and "without boots on the ground, neither the U.S. nor Israel will have the ability to shape the inevitable chaos" (Commentary, April 2026).

Whose boots? The Jerusalem Post printed an op-ed in August 2026 proposing to recruit "750k-1.5M troops" for a ground invasion of Iran through debt forgiveness for enlistment (summary by @grok, September 1, 2026). Israel does not send its infantry. See Israel will not send infantry.

"Not currently postured for ground forces"​

The official words have moved step by step:

  • June 2025: "Nobody's getting drafted. This was quick military action," wrote one supporter the night of the strikes (@realdukedenman on X, June 22, 2025).
  • March 2, 2026, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, asked whether there were American boots on the ground in Iran: "Um no but we're not going to go into the exercise of what we will or will not do" (Pentagon briefing video).
  • March 2026, Secretary of State Marco Rubio: "We are not currently postured for ground forces" (as quoted by @shanaka86 on X, March 3, 2026).
  • Late March 2026: "The Pentagon is 'developing military options for a "final blow" in Iran that could include the use of ground forces and a massive bombing campaign'" (Axios, as summarized on X trending); "With 5,000 Marines already heading to the Middle East, the Pentagon considers sending up to 10,000 more troops near Iran's key oil hub, Kharg Island" (X trending).

"Currently." "Not going to go into." The same words came before the troops in Syria and Libya.

Go deeper: Ground troops and the draft: the numbers Iran would take

The witness in 2026​

Clark himself has changed. Asked in 2026 by an interviewer whether the Iran decision was made when he saw the memo, he said: "No, I don't think so. I think it was – as I said, it was just inevitable" (as quoted by @YodysseusX on X, March 27, 2026). In September 2026 Mehdi Hasan asked him: "When you see bombs dropping on Iran, do you think this was the country last on the list?" (Zeteo on X, September 10, 2026). Zeteo describes him as defending his own support for the war, and he appeared at a rally outside the U.N. that its organizers said backed regime change in Iran. The man who revealed the list now stands on the side of its final item. The list did not need his agreement. See Clark's tellings.

Status: Wesley Clark is alive. Benjamin Netanyahu is alive. David Wurmser is alive. Joe Kent is alive. Mark Warner is alive. Pete Hegseth is alive. Marco Rubio is alive. Ali Larijani: Unknown. Ali Khamenei: Deceased (2026), as reported by an Israeli official to Axios. Nothing on this page states that any living person committed a crime.

Sources​

Research captures: twitter/t40__v469.md through t40__v480.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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