“There's not a single example in the entirety of American history of an air campaign alone resulting in positive regime change.”

A day after U.S. airstrikes on Iran, Sen. Chris Murphy said on CBS's Face the Nation (March 1, 2026) that there is not a single example in the entirety of American history of an air campaign alone producing positive regime change.

Most of the historians and military experts PolitiFact consulted agreed. Air power is highly effective at destroying infrastructure and killing individuals, but regimes are networks that often consolidate rather than collapse when a leader is removed from the air. Lasting, positive change has generally required ground troops or at least the credible threat of invasion.

A few cases complicate the absolute framing: NATO's 2011 Libya campaign helped oust Gadhafi but produced chaos, not democracy, and the 1990s Balkans campaigns are cited, though both involved ground forces and did not by themselves deliver regime change. Because the claim is accurate but slightly overstated as an absolute, PolitiFact rated it Mostly True.