Why Escalation Favors Iran

What Will Determine Escalation in Iran

We need to be honest about something with the war in Iran. An aerial campaign is unlikely to change much. It has all the makings of the post-9/11 interventions we Americans spent two decades (most of my life) trying to exit. But what has really changed inside Iran? The Ayatollah may be gone, but his son is taking his place. And he appears to be even more of a hardliner than his dad.  The Revolutionary Guard, the clerics, and the theocratic gover…

Why Escalation Favors Iran

By Robert A. Pape* – Foreign Affairs America and Israel may have bitten off more than they can chew. The first hours of Operation Epic Fury—the joint U.S.-Israeli military offensive against Iran, launched on February 28—demonstrated the extraordinary reach of modern precision warfare. U.S. and Israeli strikes killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and key intell…