If Iran has completed the nuclear weapon, the surrender scenario disappears. If subjected to a massive attack, they could respond with a launch. The sequence of any campaign must account for that reality.

In a previous article, I proposed collapsing Pickaxe Mountain’s entrances during a sustained aerial campaign as the safest tactic against a single fortress. But that argument was built for one mountain. Extrapolated to the whole of Iran’s subterranean network, it becomes something larger.

The backbone of Iranian military doctrine is to hide, to shelter, and to protect its arsenal and its nuclear program beneath the earth, sometimes inside complexes as impenetrable as Pickaxe. These are difficult to break completely, harder still to invade and hold. However, sealing them all at once in a massive, wide, and rapid operation binds Iran’s hands while striking it in the face.

President Trump has said, more than once, that any strike on Iran must “finish the job.” The objective is right. The execution is a matter of sequence. Finishing the........

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