“Know thine enemy” is absolutely one of the key elements in creating a plan to defeat one’s enemy. Additionally, one must know the capabilities of the enemy and not just estimate the intentions of one’s enemy. This is one of the most important conclusions reached by General Matthew Ridgway following the end of the Korean War.
It is much easier to know the capabilities of the enemy than to estimate their intentions properly. Once the capabilities are clarified, then one has a much better chance of estimating the intentions. That is because the intentions are a direct function of the capabilities. What few in the West have properly assessed is the actual capabilities of the Iranian regime before it was defanged and weakened by the US-Israel onslaught.
The idea of now strangling Iran economically in order to foment more internal turmoil and ultimately lead to a revolution will be fascinating to watch. It will not go smoothly. It will probably get very ugly and most Americans are not interested in US forces standing in the middle.
But Levin is correct in noting that surrender is not in the psyche or vocabulary of this Iranian regime. Neither is compromise. It will have to crumble from the inside.