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Notes -
Do you think that someone smart in the Pentagon (and Tel Aviv) has spent the last 6 months developing new doctrine about how to break an enemy only from the air and we will see it introduced when the fireworks start again? Do you think that there will be fireworks again too?
The problems the US face are pretty intractable. It hasn't gotten any easier to strike mobile, camouflaged missile or drone launchers.
If the US bombs an Iranian underground facility (usually they just blow up the entrances and exits), the Iranians can just dig it out again. Some are so deep that even the biggest conventional bombs might not work. People in the Pentagon know about all the risks and issues of war with Iran and they warned of these issues, they've been thinking about them for years...
There's not so much that you can do with doctrine in the face of an extremely one-sided operating environment. The US could destroy Iran with a barrage of H-bombs but that wouldn't really help make America stronger or safer.
The US has to have all kinds of capabilities for the expansive range of missions it pursues - sending air and sea and land forces around the world (from the Arctic to the Baltic, the Balkans to Busan), deterring China and Russia, fighting terrorism around the world. Iran only needs to fight in the Middle East. They only need to counter a small fraction of the US war machine on Iranian home turf, with their full strength.
The US has 11 supercarriers of which only 3 can be committed to Iran, considering all the other missions and maintenance required.
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