You seem to be laboring under the delusion that Iran has a central command and if you take them out, it's over.
They have a decentralizes structure, with layer after layer of crazier and crazier.
It's an asymmetrical conflict. All it takes is a little harrasment to keep the Strail locked down. And Iran is 2.5 times the size of Texas, most of it mountainous. Good luck finding them all, much less killing them.
They have all the time in the world. All they have to do is not die.
We don't have all the time in the world, and in the meantime the world economy is in flames and we are getting the blame.
We can destroy them bloodlessly both financially through the blockade and asset seizure, and practically by bombing infrastructure. Yes, they have only to survive, but the ones they need to watch out for are the people who are not willing to die for the IRGC to stay in power. Specifically Artesh, the regular army. They are larger than the IRGC and are armed.
IRGC leader Vahidi’s sidekick was killed last week in a strike to a specific floor of a building out in the boonies. Somebody was there to take a photo of it and leak it to the public. IOW, probably an insider was involved. Scuttlebutt is that the IDF assassinated Vahidi a few days ago; no confirmation either way so we don’t know, but the tactic of strangling Iran financially is causing major divisions within the regime.
Everything we’ve done has been geared toward convincing Artesh there’s no way to save both the IRGC & the country. The only way to save the country is for Artesh to get rid of the IRGC.
Now Trump is claiming there’s a “deal” that both Iran and Israel say they know nothing about. Still at issue, it is said, is how the frozen assets will be dealt with. Previously Trump has said we’re not giving them anything. And yesterday Bessent posted that the assets would be used to pay for the damage to the Arab countries. Bessent had previously asked those countries to tally up the costs for the damage, in preparation for this step. Bessent said that the more Iran struck out at neighbors, the more of their frozen assets would go permanently to those neighbors.
One time on NCIS there was a Russian bad-guy who had a noose-type thing that would tighten if the victim struggled. That’s sort of what we’ve got on the IRGC right now. All they have is missiles they can’t even aim right, & the more they fire them the more they will lose. Their delays are sucking the whole country dry. Within the past few days we hit the source of drinking water for southern Iran that is almost exclusively IRGC. Artesh is seeing that as we’ve hit their air defense system we are preparing to make good on threats to hit infrastructure. The hit on the IRGC’s water supply is a shot over the bow, to say to Artesh that if nothing is done, the whole country will die of dehydration just like the IRGC families in that area may soon. All along we’ve distinguished between IRGC and everybody else, only hitting IRGC. But Artesh has to know that we can expand to hit the whole country whenever we decide, and the only thing that will stop that from happening is if they take out the IRGC first.
My stomach felt sick when it appeared Trump was going to unfreeze the frozen assets, but now that I know the backstory with Bessent’s work and recent post, it makes more sense. This “deal” may be the US telling the IRGC that the frozen Iranian assets will be going straight to the Arab nations the IRGC has hit. And it would be a smart move, since the Arabs are losing a lot of money with the Hormuz situation. Trump has also said he’s thinking about taking Kharg Island, which could put a lot of oil into the market without Iran getting a dime off it.