Trump must attack Iran's center of gravity
📖 Full Retelling
The Trump administration has systematically dismantled Iran's conventional military and nuclear ambitions, but the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Basij remain intact, posing a direct threat to the Iranian people and standing in the way of regime change.
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Opinion > Opinions - National Security The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill Trump must attack Iran’s center of gravity by Mark Toth and Jonathan Sweet, opinion contributors - 03/12/26 7:00 AM ET by Mark Toth and Jonathan Sweet, opinion contributors - 03/12/26 7:00 AM ET Share ✕ LinkedIn Email Conventional military thought, derived from the writings of Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz , dictates that one identify the enemy’s center of gravity, then “concentrate all energy against it.” For the Islamic Republic of Iran, it center of gravity — “the source of power that provides moral or physical strength, freedom of action, or will to act” — is its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps , whose principal mission is to keep the regime in power. While the U.S. and Israeli militaries have systematically dismantled Iran’s conventional military and nuclear ambitions — the direct threat to them — they have left the internal security forces — the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Basij paramilitary — mostly intact. The Basij are the direct threat to the Iranian people and stand in their way of taking back their country, as President Trump urged them to do. They are not likely to “lay down their arms … and accept immunity.” Last week U.S. Admiral Brad Cooper described Operation Epic Fury as an “unprecedented operation to eliminate Iran’s ability to threaten Americans.” On that score, it is already largely a success. “We’re very far ahead of schedule,” Trump said on Monday. He claimed that Iran has “no navy, no communications, they’ve got no air force. Their missiles are down to a scatter. Their drones are being blown up all over the place, including their manufacturing of drones. If you look, they have nothing left. There’s nothing left in a military sense.” The metrics appear to support these comments. The Iranian navy and air force have been nearly eradicated; ballistic missile and drone mobile launchers, production and sto...
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