"Yeah, just keep killing, killing them until they're until they're gone. I mean, absolutely."

[pat_k]

19. Is the regime utterly clueless about the magnitude of the IRGC/Basij military, industrial, economic conglomerate???

I am not hearing any one of the idiots cheerleading the insanity acknowledging the uniquely formidable infrastructure.

With the limited reading I've done, it seems pretty clear that the IRGC and supporting volunteer Basij army constitute a massive force that is deeply embedded in every part of the economy and civil society. It also seems pretty clear that the IRGC wields vast oppressive power that is effectively independent of the regime leadership.

The revolutionary guard corp is estimated to be 100,000 to 200,00O people strong, with power centers throughout the economy.

And regarding the Basij, there are more indepth sources, but wikipedia provides a decent summary:

From Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basij

is a paramilitary volunteer militia ...

Subgroupings of the Basij include the

Primary Schools Basij Cadets [Basij-e Danesh-Amouzi], (also reportedly called Omidan or Hopes),[55]
Middle schools basij, Pouyandegan or Seekers,[55]
High school Basij, Pishgaman or Standard Bearers,[55]
the Students Basij Cadets [Basij-e Daneshjouyi],
the University Basij Cadets,
the Public Service Basij (Basij-e Edarii), and
the Tribal Basij.[33]

Estimates of the number of Basij vary, with its leadership giving higher figures than outside commentators. Official estimates are as high as 23.8 million.[57] A scholar of the Basij, Saeid Golkar, estimates their total membership at approximately one million, and their security forces in the tens of thousands.[19] As of 2020 there were reportedly between 40,000[19] and 54,000 Basij bases (Paygha-e Basij) around Iran.[58]

Economic power
According to the US Treasury, the Basij have a multi-billion-dollar "covert network" of businesses.[19] According to Saeid Golkar, the influence of the Basij in the Iranian economy, has grown to extend to "every sector", from "construction and real estate to the stock market".[54] In 1996, six organizations were put under the control of the Basij Cooperative Foundation (BCF)

The Basijis Housing Institution (Moassesseh-ye Tamin-e Maskan-e Basijian).
The Basijis Medical Institution (Moassesseh-ye Tamin-e darman-e Basijian).
The Basijis No-Interest Loan Institute (Moassesseh-ye Gharz al-Hassaneh-ye Basijian).
The Basijis Consumer-Goods Provision Institution (Moassesseh-ye Tamin-e Aghlam-e Masrafi-ye Basijian).
The Cultural Artistic Institute of the Warriors of Islam (Moassesseh-ye Farhangi Honari-ye Razmandegan-e Eslam).
The Scientific and Pedagogic Services Institute of the Fighters (Moassesseh-ye Khadamat-e Elmi va Amouzeshi-ye Razmandegan).[59][54]
As the government privatized companies under president Hashemi Rafsanjani, The Basij Cooperative Foundation became the Basij's main mechanism for "purchasing entire industries on the cheap"

There is also the Quds Force
From Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quds_Force

It specializes in unconventional warfare and military intelligence operations. The U.S. Army's General Stanley McChrystal describes the Quds Force as an organization analogous to a combination of the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the United States.[10] Responsible for extraterritorial operations,[11] the Quds Force supports non-state actors in many countries, including Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Houthi movement, and Shia militias in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.[11]

Fetterman's (and others) "we'll just keep killing them til they are gone" is beyond stupid.

Killing ayatollahs doesn't touch the vast infrastructure. The IRGC / Basij is like a cancer that has metastasized to every organ of the body. I fear that the idiots in charge will be perfectly happy to kill the host and destroy the lives of every Iranian in their pursuit of "victory." And clearly, MBC and Netanyahu would be thrilled with such a result.