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Israel and US have tried to take down Iran from the air. History shows the idea lacks legs

On 23 March 2026, The Times of Israel published "Israel and US have tried to take down Iran from the air. History shows the idea lacks legs". Diplomatic reporter Lazar Berman wrote it as an analysis, not as a battlefield dispatch. He argues that bombing has not, by itself, toppled governments, and that someone has to control the ground. An American family should care because the column is about whether this war stays in the air or eventually needs soldiers on the ground. The boots Israel's ambassador asks for in the column are Iranian ones, meaning a popular uprising, not Israeli soldiers.

Background for new readers: On 28 February 2026 the United States and Israel began a joint air war on Iran. The Pentagon calls its part Operation Epic Fury; Israel calls its part Operation Roaring Lion. It came eight months after a shorter war in June 2025, when US bombers hit Iran's nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. The question running through this section is whether the air war turns into American soldiers fighting on Iranian soil. This article is filed under Air War Is Not Enough; the full article index lists every article on this shelf.

Evidence rating: MODERATE. This rates a reporter's historical argument, published by an Israeli paper and backed by named analysts from the Begin-Sadat Center, CSIS, and the Royal United Services Institute, plus the ambassador's on-record answer to CNN.

What the article says​

Berman writes that US and Israeli aircraft could strike Iran at will. He writes that air campaigns still "can only do so much without complementary boots on the ground." He says toppling the Iranian government, which he says both Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu wanted, looks out of reach for bombing alone.

He quotes Daniel Byman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Byman said air campaigns are good at destroying things and killing leaders, and weak at imposing control. For that, Byman said, "you need control of the ground."

Berman then writes that Trump and Netanyahu had indicated the joint offensive would stay an air campaign, without troops on the ground. The only "boots" quote in the article is from Israel's ambassador, who asked for Iranian ones.

I think that we need boots on the ground but they've got to be Iranian boots, and I think they're coming.

Yechiel Leiter (also called Michael Leiter), Israel's ambassador to the United States, to CNN, as reported by The Times of Israel, 23 March 2026. The paper says he meant a popular uprising.

The rest of the column is military history. Berman cites Eitan Shamir of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies: "We don't have any precedent in military history of air power alone bringing about the end to a war or to decisive results," and "certainly not to the fall of a regime." He walks through World War I, World War II, Vietnam, the 1991 Gulf War, and Kosovo. His point in each case is that bombing did not, by itself, produce the political result planners wanted. He writes that in Gaza and Lebanon after 7 October 2023, Israel used ground forces, but against Iran it was trying for a decisive result by air alone. He calls success on those terms "a world first."

He also quotes Eado Hecht, of the same center, saying Israel understands it cannot bring the regime down by itself, and is trying to make an Iranian revolt more likely. Christoph Bergs, an airpower analyst at the Royal United Services Institute, says an air campaign can wear down specific weapons, and questions whether it can reach longer-term political goals without the threat of ground forces.

What other reporting adds​

Leiter said the same thing two weeks earlier. On CBS's Face the Nation on 8 March 2026, Leiter declined to rule out boots on the ground and said: "If that includes putting boots on the ground — our preference is for the boots on the ground to be those of the Iranians." (Politico, 8 March 2026; research capture: twitter/t13__v145.md).

Americans who agree bombing is not enough. Senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, wrote after classified briefings: "The objective is not to destroy Iran's nuclear program — which is not surprising, because it cannot be destroyed from the air." (as posted by @SilentlySirs on X, about 13 March 2026; research capture: twitter/t51__v601.md). By August, according to IBTimes UK, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Dan Caine, had told lawmakers: "Air power has its limits." (IBTimes UK, 3 August 2026; research capture: twitter/t52__v623.md).

Two opposite conclusions from the same history. The Stimson Center, a Washington think tank, wrote in June: "The airpower campaign inevitably failed as such campaigns always do, but President Trump deserves credit for so far refusing to order a ground invasion and seeking a peace deal." (Stimson Center, 24 June 2026; research capture: twitter/t52__v620.md). Strategist Edward Luttwak drew the other lesson in July, writing that the White House "remains infected by its 'no boots on the ground' syndrome" and that Trump "refuses to risk deploying even a small number of troops to the desert islands in the Persian Gulf." (UnHerd on X, 29 July 2026; research capture: twitter/t50__v593.md). Berman's argument, that air power cannot finish the job, leads some readers to "stop the war" and others to "send the troops."

What it shows​

Three weeks into the war, an Israeli paper told its readers that the war's stated goal could not be reached from the air: to impose control, "you need control of the ground." Israel's ambassador answered that the boots should be Iranian, and within a week Israel's Channel 12 reported that Israeli soldiers would not take part in any ground operation (see Israel Keeps Its Infantry Home). The uprising did not come. That leaves one force able to supply the ground control this column says the war needs: American troops, the same troops the Pentagon was already planning to use for weeks of ground operations (see Pentagon Ground Plans 2026 and Air War Is Not Enough).

Check it yourself​

The sources after the first come from this investigation's research captures. Their quotes are in the section above.

Status: Donald Trump is alive. Benjamin Netanyahu is alive. Yechiel Leiter is alive.

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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