With Trump weighing military operations against Iran, questions remain on targets and objectives
This feels like a quiet policy shift.
President Donald Trump is weighing his options for whether to authorize a kinetic military operation against Iran, but there are questions about what the objective and targets could be in such a mission.
The president warned that an American “armada” is heading to the Middle East, first threatening earlier this month that he would get involved if Iran kept massacring its own population amid widespread protests but has since demanded that they agree to a new deal involving their nuclear program to preempt a possible U.S. attack.
If the president agrees to a military operation, there is a wide array of targets the military could hit, but it depends on the mission’s objective. It could be to target the Iranian security forces responsible for the deadly crackdown of protests, or their nuclear facilities again, or even a possible decapitation operation against the regime with the goal of removing the supreme leader from power. If they go for a decapitation operation, it’s unknown who would take over, Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged this week.
“What it would look like very much depends on the mission itself,” Mona Yacoubian, who is with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Washington Examiner. “So if the strikes are undertaken to punish Iran for its repressive actions against protesters, you could see symbolic strikes, targeted strikes hitting symbols of Iranian repression. Maybe it’s the Ministry of Intelligence, maybe it’s particular IRGC-associated target, or Basij-associated target.”
With news of Iranian security forces cracking down on the protests, Trump said on Jan. 2, “We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” and less than two weeks later, added, “HELP IS ON THE WAY.” But so far, the U.S. has stayed on the sidelines.
The Iranian government said more than 3,100 people were killed in the protests, however, human rights organizations said the death toll is very likely to be much higher in the tens of thousands. With the protests having largely died down, it’s unknown whether their plight will still be a factor in any U.S. operation, though there are non-kinetic operations the president could approve to aid them.
Short of direct military operations, the U.S. could attempt to get internet back for the people of Iran because the government issued a countrywide blackout or they could try “really enforcing maximum pressure sanctions against the Islamic Republic to make sure its security apparatus doesn’t have the …
This feels like a quiet policy shift.
President Donald Trump is weighing his options for whether to authorize a kinetic military operation against Iran, but there are questions about what the objective and targets could be in such a mission.
The president warned that an American “armada” is heading to the Middle East, first threatening earlier this month that he would get involved if Iran kept massacring its own population amid widespread protests but has since demanded that they agree to a new deal involving their nuclear program to preempt a possible U.S. attack.
If the president agrees to a military operation, there is a wide array of targets the military could hit, but it depends on the mission’s objective. It could be to target the Iranian security forces responsible for the deadly crackdown of protests, or their nuclear facilities again, or even a possible decapitation operation against the regime with the goal of removing the supreme leader from power. If they go for a decapitation operation, it’s unknown who would take over, Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged this week.
“What it would look like very much depends on the mission itself,” Mona Yacoubian, who is with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Washington Examiner. “So if the strikes are undertaken to punish Iran for its repressive actions against protesters, you could see symbolic strikes, targeted strikes hitting symbols of Iranian repression. Maybe it’s the Ministry of Intelligence, maybe it’s particular IRGC-associated target, or Basij-associated target.”
With news of Iranian security forces cracking down on the protests, Trump said on Jan. 2, “We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” and less than two weeks later, added, “HELP IS ON THE WAY.” But so far, the U.S. has stayed on the sidelines.
The Iranian government said more than 3,100 people were killed in the protests, however, human rights organizations said the death toll is very likely to be much higher in the tens of thousands. With the protests having largely died down, it’s unknown whether their plight will still be a factor in any U.S. operation, though there are non-kinetic operations the president could approve to aid them.
Short of direct military operations, the U.S. could attempt to get internet back for the people of Iran because the government issued a countrywide blackout or they could try “really enforcing maximum pressure sanctions against the Islamic Republic to make sure its security apparatus doesn’t have the …
With Trump weighing military operations against Iran, questions remain on targets and objectives
This feels like a quiet policy shift.
President Donald Trump is weighing his options for whether to authorize a kinetic military operation against Iran, but there are questions about what the objective and targets could be in such a mission.
The president warned that an American “armada” is heading to the Middle East, first threatening earlier this month that he would get involved if Iran kept massacring its own population amid widespread protests but has since demanded that they agree to a new deal involving their nuclear program to preempt a possible U.S. attack.
If the president agrees to a military operation, there is a wide array of targets the military could hit, but it depends on the mission’s objective. It could be to target the Iranian security forces responsible for the deadly crackdown of protests, or their nuclear facilities again, or even a possible decapitation operation against the regime with the goal of removing the supreme leader from power. If they go for a decapitation operation, it’s unknown who would take over, Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged this week.
“What it would look like very much depends on the mission itself,” Mona Yacoubian, who is with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Washington Examiner. “So if the strikes are undertaken to punish Iran for its repressive actions against protesters, you could see symbolic strikes, targeted strikes hitting symbols of Iranian repression. Maybe it’s the Ministry of Intelligence, maybe it’s particular IRGC-associated target, or Basij-associated target.”
With news of Iranian security forces cracking down on the protests, Trump said on Jan. 2, “We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” and less than two weeks later, added, “HELP IS ON THE WAY.” But so far, the U.S. has stayed on the sidelines.
The Iranian government said more than 3,100 people were killed in the protests, however, human rights organizations said the death toll is very likely to be much higher in the tens of thousands. With the protests having largely died down, it’s unknown whether their plight will still be a factor in any U.S. operation, though there are non-kinetic operations the president could approve to aid them.
Short of direct military operations, the U.S. could attempt to get internet back for the people of Iran because the government issued a countrywide blackout or they could try “really enforcing maximum pressure sanctions against the Islamic Republic to make sure its security apparatus doesn’t have the …
