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A possible first wave of an attack on Iran would focus on strategic missile sites and launchers, the most immediate threats to US forces and Israel, a former CENTCOM official told the Post.

The massive accumulation of US military assets in the Middle East is not merely a show of force but a signal that the United States has the capacity to dismantle the Iranian regime’s power structure in a matter of hours, according to Vice Admiral (Ret.) Bob Harward, former deputy commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM).

“One thing he’s illustrated is that [President Donald] Trump does what he says,” Harward told The Jerusalem Post, citing the withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and the US’s stance that it will not tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran. “Now he’s positioned the assets for a military action,” Harward said.

“If he cannot meet the objectives regarding the nuclear and ballistic missile program, he’s willing to go beyond mediation and act.”

If the order to strike is given, Harward, who served as deputy commander of CENTCOM until 2013, detailed a hierarchy of targets designed to neuter Iran’s offensive capabilities while sparing the general population. The priority, according to the former commander, would be “bottom-up.” The first wave would target strategic missile locations and launchers – the direct threats to US forces and Israel.

The second priority would be neutralizing the remnants of surrogates outside the country that pose a risk of retaliation against Israel.

US could strike IRGC headquarters

However, the most significant shift in strategy concerns the regime’s internal grip on power. Harward suggested that a campaign would target the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the instruments used to oppress the Iranian people, rather than the national infrastructure.

“You’re not going to look at infrastructure,” Harward explained. “This is to provide the Iranian people a change in government, so I think those types of targets will not be hit. It will be focused only on the things that enable the regime and the IRGC to suppress the people.”

Perhaps the most chilling warning for Tehran was Harward’s description of modern American warfare capabilities, which he noted are vastly superior to what was seen in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. “Because of what we’ve learned and what we’ve been able to develop technology-wise – be it command, control, and targeting – it allows your mass of strikes to be more effective,” Harward said.

“Where previously you could do 40 or 50 strikes a day, we now have the ability to conduct hundreds of strikes a day. That in itself changes the equation completely for the regime.”

Harward elaborated that the US now possesses the capability to decapitate the IRGC’s command structure with overwhelming speed. “If you’re targeting the IRGC and want to go after all their headquarters and facilities, you could probably do that in a matter of hours. That’s unprecedented.”

Harward’s perspective is shaped not only by his military service but also by his personal history. His family lived in Iran from 1968 to 1979, and he was in the country as a senior at the US Naval Academy just weeks before the Shah fell.

Recalling the 1979 revolution, Harward noted that the turning point came when the military shifted from supporting the Shah to supporting the people. He believes a similar dynamic is key to any future change in Tehran. “This is a regime that for 47 years has oppressed its people,” he said. “The bulk of them want change.”

He emphasized that any military action must be aligned with supporting the Iranian population, ensuring that the target list degrades the regime’s ability to communicate and suppress dissent without alienating the public.

“I don’t think anyone really understands the scale or capacity we have because no one’s ever seen it before,” Harward said, adding a warning to other global powers. “If it does happen, this will be illuminating for everyone to understand where we have come in terms of size, scale, speed, and capacity – be it Russia or China.”

The Trump administration said Thursday its campaign to end diversity programs in higher education has led dozens of universities to cut ties with an organization known as The PhD Project, which helps racial minorities earn doctorate degrees.

The PhD Project was a little-known nonprofit group until it caught the attention of conservative strategists last year and became the focus of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education. The Republican administration says school diversity programs often exclude white and Asian American students.

The investigation, opened in March 2025, has resulted in 31 universities agreeing to end partnerships with the group, the department’s Office for Civil Rights said Thursday. Negotiations are continuing with 14 additional schools, it said.

The department said in its statement that The PhD Project “unlawfully limits eligibility based on the race of participants” and that institutions partnering with it violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in education programs and activities that receive federal money.

“This is the Trump effect in action: institutions of higher education are agreeing to cut ties with discriminatory organizations, recommitting themselves to abiding by federal law, and restoring equality of opportunity on campuses across the nation,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said.

Many of the schools promptly cut ties with The PhD Project after the investigation was opened, in order to avoid entanglements with the administration. It had undertaken the inquiries after warning schools they could lose federal money over “race-based preferences.”

The PhD Project is one of many nonprofits that helps underrepresented groups gain access to higher education.

“The PhD Project was founded with the goal of providing more role models in the front of business classrooms and this remains our goal today,” the organization said in a statement Thursday. The website says it has “helped more than 1,500 members earn their doctoral degree.”

The group of 31 colleges listed by the department included major public research universities such as Arizona State, Ohio State and the University of Michigan, along with prestigious private schools like Yale, Duke and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

MIT, like many of the schools cited in the investigation, had paid The PhD Project “a nominal fee” to participate in the group’s university fairs or conferences, allowing MIT to send representatives to answer questions about attending their school, spokesperson Kimberly Allen said.

MIT informed the government in April 2025 it had ended its participation in such conferences and was notified months later that the Office for Civil Rights had found it in violation of Title VI. The school signed a “resolution agreement” with the department about a week ago to resolve the matter “but explicitly did not admit any liability, wrongdoing or violation of any law or regulation,” Allen said.

The University of North Dakota said it, too, promptly ended its membership with The PhD Project two weeks after the investigation was announced last year.

“The University became a member of the PhD Project to have access to the PhD Project’s member directory and applicant database, to be able to recruit a larger pool of qualified applicants for faculty positions,” spokesperson David Dodds said in a statement.

The University of Utah said it had a table at annual conferences hosted by the nonprofit in the 2024-25 school year and two previous years. It cut ties with the project in October after settling with the department, university spokesperson Rebecca Walsh said.

Out of 170 PhD students admitted to Utah’s business school over the past 14 years, just two were involved through the PhD Project, Walsh said.

The Education Department said that all of the 31 universities have also agreed to review partnerships with other organizations “to identify any that violate Title VI by restricting participation based on race.”

The administration has targeted a wide range of practices that it has labeled as diversity, equity and inclusion.

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