Ayatolla murder: The red line six American presidents refused to cross

For decades, the Pentagon ran war games that always ended the same way: a strike on Iran’s supreme leader triggers a regional inferno that makes the Iraq war look like a skirmish. Bill Clinton had opportunities. George W. Bush had reasons. Barack Obama had the intelligence. Joe Biden had the drones. None of them gave the order.

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A mourner holds a picture of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei at a memorial vigil, a day after his assassination in joint US and Israeli strikes, in Tehran on March 1, 2026.
[AFP]

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