War With Iran Has Begun. Where Does It End?

Trump has launched combat operations despite little public support and widespread fears among allies.

By Nancy A. Youssef and Jonathan Lemire

Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani / The Atlantic*

February 28, 2026

More than an hour after missiles began targeting top Iranian officials across downtown Tehran, President Trump for the first time described his goal to the American public: for the most powerful armed factions in Iran to lay down their arms and for Iranians to rise up and risk death by seizing control of their government.

In an eight-minute address on Truth Social that amounted to a declaration of war, Trump also acknowledged the possibility of American casualties. Within three hours of the initial strike, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it launched ballistic missiles at four nearby U.S. bases, and the sound of air defenses shooting down missiles reverberated across the region. Iranian forces successfully struck inside Bahrain, home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet. Air defenses appeared to have shot down missiles aimed at Qatar (home to the largest U.S. military base in the region), the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait (which also host American forces), and Israel, which joined U.S. forces in the attack. Jordan, where American aircraft are parked, also said it shot down missiles. In all, Iran launched roughly 300 counter attacks, a U.S. defense official said.

The last U.S. strikes on Iran, in June, were aimed at curtailing Iran’s nuclear ambitions. This time, Trump went much further, making clear his desire for a change in Iran’s leadership for the first time in 47 years as well as for the elimination of its nuclear and ballistic-missile development programs. He is pursuing that war without congressional approval, with little appetite among his base for another U.S. regime-change operation in the Middle East, and with several allies in the region having discouraged new strikes, fearing a broader conflict.

This War will bring a degree of Peace to the Middle East by removing the greatest sponsor of state terror iin the region.

Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States will form a prosporus King of the South with Israel’s economy benefitting all.   This is not surprising to Bible Students as we fully expect to see this development based on Bible Prophecy that has foretold the alignment of Nations in the “latter days”.  The Bible describes a King of the North and a King of the South Geo-political Alignment of Nations in the last days prior to the last battle of mankind and the intervention of Christ to established God’s Kingdom on Earth Forever.  We read of this in Daniel Chapter 11:

“And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.”

You can read more about this in this article: Alignment of Nations in the Latter Days