Ali Vaez

And yet most of those commanders were quickly replaced and Iran managed to get back on its feet and start punching back.

In order to get the kind of regime change that President Trump wants, so that the running people can come to the streets and finish the job from below, you would have to completely dismantle the repressive capacities of this regime.

And there we're talking about 200,000 strong revolutionary guards, which has a million strong militia, in addition to hundreds of thousands of security forces and police.

And remember, Rachel, that the regime committed a bloody massacre last month against Iranian protesters, not like in the case of Syria, using fighter jets and tanks and battle bombs and chemical weapons, but with small arms.

So to destroy all of that force and the limited capacities that they have to contain and repress a population that is unarmed, unorganized and fragmented requires weeks and weeks, if not months of military engagement, which would have an enormous civilian cost for Iran and disastrous regional implications.