Iran poses a far more dangerous military test for the US than Venezuela, experts warn

By Fox News · Fox News

Fresh off a successful operation in Venezuela, the U.S. is weighing its options as Iran’s leadership launches a violent crackdown on anti-government protesters — raising questions about whether similar military pressure could be applied to Tehran, Iran. In Caracas, Venezuela, U.S. special operators moved quickly to capture Nicolás Maduro . In Tehran, Iran, any comparable effort would unfold against a state with greater military depth and the ability to strike back well beyond its borders. "Thinking of this as an operation, as in the case of Venezuela or the nuclear program, is the wrong framing," Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital. "This has to be seen as a campaign." Iran is a larger, more capable military power than Venezuela, with security forces designed to protect the regime from both foreign attack and internal unrest. Power is distributed across clerical institutions, security services and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — a structure built to survive the loss of individual leaders rather than collapse with them. IRAN GOES DARK AS REGIME UNLEASHES FORCE, CYBER TOOLS TO CRUSH PROTESTS "Musical chairs at the top is highly unlikely to work in Iran," Taleblu said. He pointed to the central role of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which he described as "the tip of the spear of the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism," warning that removing a single figure would leave a hardened security apparatus intact — and potentially more dangerous. That structure is backed by a military capability Venezuela never possessed: a resilient missile force that gives Iran credible options for retaliation if it believes the regime itself is under threat. US RAID IN VENEZUELA SIGNALS DETERRENCE TO ADVERSARIES ON THREE FRONTS, EXPERTS SAY "The retaliatory capability of the Islamic Republic is still fairly intact, which is their missile program," Taleblu said. During heavy Israeli strikes in the 12…