American military might over the middle east was pretty much already well established, we had boots on the ground in Afghanistan for almost two decades with basically complete dominance and barely anyone back home noticed. We hardly lift a finger while they fight for their lives.
But military might is just a means to an end, and even it has limits. After all, the Afghanistan example didn't turn out very well in the long run. Across the political spectrum our actions there are now widely viewed as a mistake. Yet you can go back and see the discussions of time, people were hyped as shit and drunk on power in the early parts of the war. They never would have expected such long term failures and widespread backlash, yet it happened anyway.
So yes we could attack many places, but what does it actually do? Is it an effective means to reach our goals there? What even are our goals? Does short term success get followed up with long term success or we will be stumbling drunk into more forever wars and unintended second and third order effects? These are all important questions. The Iranian leaders being evil and deserving of death doesn't make it simple and easy, because the same thing was true about much of Iraq and Afghanistan.
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American military might over the middle east was pretty much already well established, we had boots on the ground in Afghanistan for almost two decades with basically complete dominance and barely anyone back home noticed. We hardly lift a finger while they fight for their lives.
But military might is just a means to an end, and even it has limits. After all, the Afghanistan example didn't turn out very well in the long run. Across the political spectrum our actions there are now widely viewed as a mistake. Yet you can go back and see the discussions of time, people were hyped as shit and drunk on power in the early parts of the war. They never would have expected such long term failures and widespread backlash, yet it happened anyway.
So yes we could attack many places, but what does it actually do? Is it an effective means to reach our goals there? What even are our goals? Does short term success get followed up with long term success or we will be stumbling drunk into more forever wars and unintended second and third order effects? These are all important questions. The Iranian leaders being evil and deserving of death doesn't make it simple and easy, because the same thing was true about much of Iraq and Afghanistan.
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