US fails to ‘take Vienna’ in Iran; and the is enemy undeterred

One of the more enduring quotes attributed to Napoleon was this admonition on decisiveness and total commitment in war: “If you are going to take Vienna, take Vienna!”

This maxim has served as a caution to every strategist and commander to not falter during the execution of a military campaign. War is not the realm of half-measures or hesitation in execution. If you commit to an objective — capture it completely; if you commit to a strategy — relentlessly execute it until the desired strategic endstate is achieved.

In the current Iran conflict, the U.S. brilliantly executed a decisive tactical operation characterized by precise and highly effective targeting driven by exquisite intelligence. The first phase of this Operation Epic Fury was an example of another of Napoleon’s principles: “If you wage war, do it energetically and with severity. This is the only way to make it shorter and consequently less inhuman.”

Iran’s nuclear facilities and capabilities were severely damaged. Its national leadership, military chain of command, and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps leadership were decimated. Its ballistic missile facilities and capabilities were degraded. Its proxy force in Lebanon, Hezbollah, was defanged. The campaign was, indeed, executed “energetically and with severity.”

As a result of these highly effective offensive operations, the U.S. and its regional allies, had all of the cards and, with perseverance, the opportunity to complete the destruction of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, its ballistic missile threat and its threat to shipping in the vital Strait of Hormuz. This president’s bold decision to act presented a real opportunity to reshape the Middle East by destroying the means of Iran’s war-making capability and forcing the regime to accept terms that were dictated to them.

However, we chose to not finish the job. Today, we are in a self-inflicted pause, during which we are negotiating with a battered, yet defiant and undeterred,........

© The Hill