It’s for employing air-power to destroy Iran’s military capabilities and potentialities to the greatest extent reasonably possible.  Anything else—total regime change, liberating the Iranian people, fostering democracy in Iran—would be a bonus.

Many well-educated, handsomely-credentialed strategic thinkers are concerned that President Trump has not clearly answered what they consider the most basic question about the current conflict between the U.S. and Israel, on one side, and Iran on the other: what is the war meant to achieve?  (See, for example, this op-ed.)

And, of course, clear statements are often not Trump’s preferred method of communication.  It is not unusual for him to say different, even contradictory things, and sometimes it must certainly be desirable to keep an adversary guessing about one’s ultimate goal.  So, people today are asking whether the goal in Iran is nuclear prevention, or preemption, or regime change, or liberation, or deterrence, or regional realignment, or etc.

In my opinion, when this conflict is over, it will be very clear that the only essential goal for the U.S. and Israel was to use overwhelming air-power to weaken Iran’s military capabilities and potentialities to the greatest extent reasonably possible.  That means that Israel and........

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