When Israel fought back against Hamas, I said on day 1 that the most humane way to handle the conflict would be for Israel to systematically displace and process the entire Gaza population into newly built internment camps in the desert to the south. Build air conditioning, take care of all their food, medicine, etc, turn it into an effective open air prison camp. An incredibly large undertaking, but absolutely possible- and as every person is brought in you can be sure they have no weapons, they aren't able to hide hostages, anyone left in Gaza is a combatant or hostage and Israel is able to minimize collateral damage and deprive Hamas of their main source of human shields.
They didn't.
Instead they launched a ton of attacks, an invasion, sporadic bombings and precision strikes and engagements that wind up killing tens of thousands of people, some % civilians that we can't know.
And in the end, what is their future? They'll likely be administering post-war Gaza as an open air prison camp, taking care of all their food and medicine, and recovering only some of their hostages alive.
If the goal of a war with Iran is to destroy their nuclear weapon program and set them back indefinitely without attempting regime change, then it makes sense to use bunker busters to destroy their nuclear fortress facilities. What does not make as much sense is dragging out weeks, maybe months or years of missile exchanges that hit each others military targets sometimes and civilian targets sometimes, assassinating top military leadership and blowing up hospitals alike. We'll see how it shakes out in the end, but the US strategy is clearly more coherent than the Israeli one at least. That doesn't mean it will be successful or not invite worse blowback and instability
I think, or at least I hope that this plays out in the following way:
Iran has some face saving strikes on US bases with 99% of them getting intercepted and no real damage. They get to claim retribution while accepting the L of losing their nuclear facilities and this all kind of dies down.
Lots of alternatives that could be infinitely worse. I really hope this was just a one off and they really don’t intend to complete the regime change or boots on the ground. If we go any level boots on the ground this would be one of the biggest US foreign policy blunders maybe ever?
This isn’t cave dwellers in Afghanistan. It’s a 90mm people country that has natural barriers.
Even if they decide to shut down oil movement through Hormuz that would be a huge response.