However, with Iran, they are not civilized and the usual rationale doesn't really apply anymore because the Iranians would be dismantled from a pol-mil perspective and be placed in a situation where internal turmoil (power struggles) would ensue and internal deaths, assassinations, imprisonments, etc. . .those would stop them in their tracks for a long time as they try and establish another regime.
Unlike the civilized world where if decapitation takes place the chain of command would reach down however far it needs to (and takes some time), the Iranians have no such organization and a food-fight would surely begin and last until “they” establish their own, new power structure.
Any air strikes of any kind rely on accurate Intel, and I wager that if we ran MOP missions and a few select strike missions against leadership, we would see a lot of defections and others coming forward with Intel.
Besides, who do you think is building those complexes? We have Intel feeds from those countries that have the blue-prints and we can know how they are built and where their weak points are. . .and heck, we know where their entrances are and we can easily use MOP to drop the cave, close the entrances, basically shut them down without totally destroying the entire complex. . .stopping the program by suffocating the workers, technicians and scientists by burying them for decades under the rubble of a cave entrance, rubble that can extend down and out for a very long distance.
Just my thoughts.
Allow me a citation to demonstrate the inefficacy of that strategy: Libya.
As a result, thousands of MANPADS have been distributed worldwide by now, a whirlwind we have yet to reap, perhaps in the NextGen, so to speak.
No, that wasn't a joke or typo. The NextGen Air Traffic Control System being implemented in CONUS mandates that commercial aircraft line up in narrow corridors during entry to airports. Fly low and slow like ducks in a row!
See tag line.