alt Hacker News> they'd nuke themselves before accepting the unconditional surrender he asked for
To me it's a bit more complicated than that. Unconditional surrender can be achieved ... with boots on the ground all over Iran on a penetration level last seen in WW2. If you think Iran's government is as simple to decapitate as Iraq, think again.
Then you get the unconditional surrender of a government. Is the average Iranian amenable to tolerate this situation and get its terms dictated by the US? Nope, they're not the Germans in '45. You'll get decades of insurgency; if you think ISIS as a consequence of the Iraq Invasion was bad, look forward to even worse.
At the end of the day, Trump always chickens out. Look forward to the end of the American bombings the second the new leader gets him on the phone. The Israelis that's another thing.
> with boots on the ground all over Iran on a penetration level last seen in WW2.
It's four times larger than Iraq, with a much tougher terrain and they've been setting up militarily independent regions for the last 40 years specifically in case this would happen. The current operation at week 1 has already a worse public approval than the Vietnam war after 5 years of american dying in ground operations.
I'd love if they went in because it would precipitate the end the US empire by a good decade