No. of Recommendations: 5
They clearly did NOT have anyone in the bag in Iran. If they did not have anyone in the bag, then they would have known that it wasn't going to be Venezuela 2.0, before they attacked.
It's pretty likely they thought they had someone in the bag before they attacked. And that person either was inadvertently killed in the initial strikes or ended up losing out in the scramble for a replacement leadership. Probably the former, given various administration comments on how the initial attack might have been too successful. That would have been their "Plan A." And Plan B would have been that either some other person takes power that realizes they can't win and decides to bend the knee, or that Iran falls apart (and that might have been Israel's preferred outcome), and descends into a state incapable of maintaining opposition to the U.S.
I don't believe they wanted what ended up happening - that Iran successfully managed the transition past the killing of their initial leadership and ended up maintaining both continuity and steadfast opposition to the U.S. That wasn't their plan, and it wasn't their objective. This is a terrible situation for the Administration, and not something they ever would have wanted to happen.
