Not sure if the administration fully understood who they were dealing with. Any sane people would have begged for a deal after the first week and I think that was what The Pres was expecting. But these people are not sane in our understanding if the word. They are religious zealot who are happy to die. They care nothing about the people of their country or the country itself. It’s all about their distorted view of their religious mandate. To quote the great John Belushi, “They are on a mission from God.” They could care less if we bomb them back to the 7th century. They and their religion are comfortable there.
I’m guessing if we turned Iran into a glass parking lot the few remaining IRGC survivors would fire off their last batch of rockets before succumbing.
The IRGC cares absolutely nothing about the people of Iran. They must maintain the status quo. If they lose power, their own people will tear them to shreds (literally).
If we were to get involved in a ground war, they people might praise us to our faces, but the would hate our peace keepers (soldiers) and kill them in guerilla action (just like Iraq).
We will have to bomb them until there are no targets left. Not a good idea listening to the Israel/neocon lobby, but we are in it and must stay the course. So sad.