Amid surging gas and food prices, the Pentagon has requested $200 billion to replenish ammunition and fund operations critical to the war effort in Iran. Yet, bombs and bullets alone will never defeat the Islamist diehards that hold positions of power in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
If members of Congress are serious about destroying the Iranian regime once and for all, they must pass an emergency supplemental appropriations bill that includes funding to support the Iranian people in their pursuit of regime change. For every metric ton of high explosives earmarked for Iran, lawmakers must allocate millions of dollars in support for revolutionary activities and political transition in a post-regime Iran.
Congress has already waited too long. Nearly a year ago, the House Republican Study Committee pieced together a series of impactful bills, dubbed the “Enforcing Maximum Pressure” initiative, that could have rocked the regime and set the conditions for a forcible transfer of power. These bills, which included the toughest Iran sanctions ever proposed by Congress, have sat in committees without so much as a single markup hearing.
REGIME CHANGE IN TEHRAN IS THE ONLY PATH TO STABILITY
Instead, senators voted earlier this month on a war powers resolution that, if passed, would have scuttled the war effort and, along with it, any meaningful chance for a free Iran.
What explains this legislative inertia on the part of a bicameral majority Congress? It’s clearly not a lack of imagination; lawmakers have introduced hundreds of bills with the words “Iran” or “Iranian” in their titles or text. They can take their pick from a handful of bills dealing with internet freedom in Iran, sanctions on Iranian oil, or terror designations targeting Iranian proxies from Iraq to Venezuela.
The most promising parts of this existing legislation could be repurposed within an emergency supplemental, hastening the collapse of a regime that stubbornly maintains control over its security apparatus and dominion over its people and proxies. An appropriations bill that includes funding for regime defectors, striking workers, and information warfare would diminish Tehran’s grip on authority in ways that air power alone will never accomplish.
When the shooting stops, U.S. policymakers will shift from toppling Iran’s regime to managing its successor, and with democracy-building relegated to the past, they won’t get a vote on the new government’s configuration. That’s a frightening prospect for a country with a fractured opposition that lacks a single unifying movement or a political consensus for what comes next.
As a result, Congress needs updated policies and appropriations to see liberated Iranians through the chaos and uncertainty that accompanies government collapse, programs to shepherd emancipated Iranians to a period of political transition and the establishment of new government structures.
Forget about anti-ballistic missiles and guided bombs. Congress must consider how to pay for basic services, hospital ships, and amnesty programs as a transitional government takes shape.
Whatever system Iranians decide to establish, the country’s new leaders will be tasked with purging regime hardliners while offering amnesty initiatives that preserve Iran’s skilled bureaucratic class — civil servants, administrators, and mid-level managers. Let the hard lessons from de-Ba’athification in Iraq inform the de-Islamification of Iran.
With congressional funding, Iranians could deploy labor organizers and teachers unions — part of a remarkably healthy civil society and middle class — to build the participatory processes necessary for a functioning government. Programs focused on constitution drafting and judicial reforms, along with investments in human rights and women’s rights groups, chambers of commerce, and other human capital, will guarantee a smooth political transition aligned with U.S. interests.
Finally, if Iranian revolutionaries wrest control of state institutions from the regime, disarmament and denuclearization become critical tasks. The United States and its allies must prevent deposed military leaders and rogue actors from auctioning off Iran’s stockpiles of ballistic missiles, drones, and nuclear technologies.
A WEAKENED IRAN MAY BE A MORE DANGEROUS IRAN
Unfortunately, the non-kinetic assistance Iranians need to pull off a political coup appears unlikely to materialize. Until Trump articulates a clear directive to manage regime change in Iran, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are unlikely to act on their own. Doing so would box the president into a scenario where anything less than a complete transfer of authority in Tehran would be viewed as a stark failure for the administration.
Yet, failing to act all but guarantees the Iranian regime lives on — weakened militarily but strengthened politically for surviving the U.S.-Israeli bombardment. Therefore, it’s time for Congress to force the issue by going all-in on regime change, and the best way to achieve this outcome is by carving out portions of an emergency spending bill for political warfare and state-building operations. Anything less will haunt the administration and harm Iranian revolutionaries for generations to come.
Benjamin Baird is the director of MEF Action at the Middle East Forum.