Trump’s and Israel’s Iran Strategy in One Picture

We are in the midst of a massive psyop. A coordinated campaign to convince people that Iran is winning the war in which its military power is almost utterly destroyed, its leadership decapitated multiple times, and its only strategy is to lash out at its neighbors and murder its own citizens. 

The Iranian regime is now recruiting 12-year-olds to kill its own citizens who protest the government, and it is forcing its citizens to become human shields to protect military objectives. 

Well, if you doubt that Israel and Trump have a strategy, just look at this one picture:

Notable absence of Artesh leadership among those killed; only IRGC commanders have been targeted. https://t.co/SWZo6LmolX pic.twitter.com/QkzMWcwY67

— Colby Badhwar (@ColbyBadhwar) April 7, 2026

Most people don’t know that Iran has two military forces: the Artesh, which is the normal kind of military we all think of, and the IRGC, which is the military force that exists as an arm of the regime. One defends the country, the other the Ayatollah and his cronies. 

The civilian government and the regime we think of are two different things, though they obviously overlap. That is why Iran has both a president and a Supreme Leader. One leads the government, the other is basically a demigod. They are not the same thing. 

A deepening rift at the top of the Islamic Republic has spilled into an unusually sharp confrontation, with President Masoud Pezeshkian accusing senior Guards commanders of unilateral actions that have wrecked ceasefire prospects and pushed Iran toward disaster.… pic.twitter.com/5kDmV7jlE6

— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) April 7, 2026

Trump and Netanyahu have targeted the Ayatollah regime, and are attempting to keep the government and military, at least domestically, mostly intact. And for a reason. You can reason with a government, but not the current regime. 

deepening rift at the top of the Islamic Republic has spilled into an unusually sharp confrontation, with President Masoud Pezeshkian accusing senior Guards commanders of unilateral actions that have wrecked ceasefire prospects and pushed Iran toward disaster.

Two sources close to the presidential office said a tense exchange took place on Saturday, April 4, between Pezeshkian and Hossein Taeb, a powerful figure close to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. Those present described the conversation as unusually difficult and highly charged.

During the meeting, Pezeshkian accused IRGC chief commander Ahmad Vahidi and Ali Abdollahi, commander of Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters – the country’s armed forces’ unified command, of acting unilaterally and driving escalation through attacks on regional countries, especially against their infrastructure.

According to the sources, Pezeshkian said those policies had destroyed any remaining chance of a ceasefire and were steering the Islamic Republic directly toward “a huge catastrophe.”

He also warned that, based on what he described as precise assessments, Iran’s economy would not be able to withstand a prolonged war for much longer and that full economic collapse was inevitable under current conditions.

It is by no means assured that this strategy will work, just as no strategy is guaranteed to work in almost any aspect of life, and especially in warfare. 

But it is a pretty good strategy, and, as importantly, the fact that it is so obvious calls the accusation that Trump is acting like a madman who is lashing out into question. 

In fact, all the people accusing Trump of rushing into war with no coherent strategy and no plan for how to implement it are either lying or too stupid to breathe without instruction; in either case, they are not people you should listen to. 

I have sympathy for people who question the wisdom of this war, although I believe they are wrong. They urge us to follow the North Korea/Agreed Framework strategy for preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. How did that work out? What they really mean by pushing continued negotiations is “try to delay the inevitable nuclear Iran.” 

Tucker, Candace, Joe Kent: “Iran isn’t trying to build nuclear weapons. The Ayatollah said nukes are immoral!”

Deputy Speaker of the Iranian Parliament: “We tried to develop nuclear weapons, but couldn’t keep it secret.” pic.twitter.com/dNsmzewsmG

— Rod D. Martin (@RodDMartin) April 3, 2026

Of course, Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons. Anybody who says otherwise also believes that Iran’s IRBMs had half the range they have now demonstrated they have. Iran lied. Just as North Korea did before it built its nuclear bombs. 

‘Under Obama, Iran agreed not to pursue nuclear weapons’ is an idiotic statement. North Korea agreed not to acquire nuclear weapons under Clinton. Such agreements are not worth the breath we use to describe them. 

Trump has a strategy. His smarter opponents know this and are lying. His less smart opponents are just venting nonsense. 

The strategy may work. It may not. But the alternative was a nuclear Iran. They admit they had the material to build 10 or 11 nuclear bombs. 

Should Trump have let them?