I really can't say how this is being received in or out of Iran, but I remember after the initial strikes there was widespread footage of Iranian exiles celebrating, even on anti-Trump media.

Edit: and even people celebrating in Iran itself, which seems incredibly brave.

"videos posted on social media showed joy and defiance elsewhere, with people cheering as a statue was toppled in the city of Dehloran in Ilam province, dancing in the streets of Karaj city, near Tehran in Alborz province, and celebrating in the streets of Izeh in Khuzestan province.
In the town of Galleh Dar in southern Iran, people knocked down a monument commemorating Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who founded the Islamic Republic in 1979, a video on social media showed."

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/polarised-ira...

Even The Guardian, as anti-Trump as a source can be, reported that "videos shared widely on social media also showed people celebrating, dancing, honking car horns and setting off fireworks as news of the leader’s death broke."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/01/celebration-or...

This seems to be a fairly well thought out war that's already killed many Iranian leaders, including:

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – Supreme Leader

Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi – Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces

Major General Mohammad Pakpour – Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC

Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh – Minister of Defense

Mohammad Shirazi – Head of Supreme Leader’s military office

Ali Larijani – Senior national security chief

Esmaeil Khatib – Minister of Intelligence

Gholamreza Rezaian – Iranian police intelligence commander

Gholamreza Soleimani – Basij paramilitary commander

Saleh Asadi – Head of military intelligence at Khatam‑al Anbiya

Has there been any other war in which one side so quickly killed the leadership of the other side?

> The Iranian government is bad, and yes, it should be toppled, eventually, by its own people.

You would prefer to tell people in Iran who oppose the regime to take up arms (which they don't have) and fight IRGC soldiers with better training and more resources?

Best case, if they did, Iran would end up in a situation like Syria. Would that be an improvement?

More likely, it would simply be a massacre.