Unless we're in a declared state of war, why should we care about the military capabilities of a foreign country? We have lots of geopolitical opponents who have much greater military capabilities than Iran...and some allies with ideologies that some might describe to be just as ideologically zealous as the Iranian government's.
Do you deny Iran is a regional threat to us
Iran and the USA are not in the same region.
and our allies,
It is not in our national interest to pick sides in ethnic/tribal/religious conflicts that predate our country's very existence. Let them fight it out amongst each other.
that we have been in a low intensity conflict since 1979 and when our people were taken hostage?
Again: we supported the Shah, whose government got deposed. We then repaid the favor by orders of magnitude in terms of bloodshed by backing Saddam after he invaded Iran in 1980. If we're supposed to always remember the hostage crisis of 1979, do you think they're going to forget the deaths of hundreds of thousands of their own countrymen?
And if you do not not want them to have these weapons, what are you going to do about it?
If you're going to keep technology that's over 80 years old out of another country's hands—technology that their neighbors in Pakistan have had for DECADES now—then your only realistic option is to occupy the country in perpetuity, because all our actions have done is certify that the only practical safeguard against sudden oblivion at America's hands is a working nuclear deterrent. See North Korea for example.
What Bush W. did?...What Obama did?...What Biden did?
How about focusing on missile defense to the utmost, tightening border controls, deporting culturally incompatible foreigners and malcontents who have no right to be here, and leaving the Middle East to its own devices?
Trump has a clear mission
Uh huh. It's so clear that he's declared victory how many times at this point?
and end state: no nuclear weapons for Iran
By what, bombing them until we run out of weapons? Depleting a stockpile that's already been hit hard by the Ukraine fiasco? The only thing that will actually guarantee "no nuclear weapons" in a country THOUSANDS OF MILES AWAY is to have boots on the ground, and that would be political suicide.
and there is no scope creep (focused).
Dude, we've already moved to re-opening the Strait of Hormuz as a mission goal, even though freight flow was not a problem before our unilateral attack on February 28th.
He is trying to execute this war in a way that minimizes risk to our military personnel.
I missed the part where we actually got a declaration of war with buy-in from the entire country. If Iran is the dire civilizational threat he proposes it to be, why didn't he sell the American people on it?
What is your genius solution that is better?
Get out of the Middle East.
Frankly, even with 20-20 hindsight, I cannot see where Trump could have done things better.
Then your imagination is severely lacking.
If I had been Trump during that security briefing with Netanyahu and Israeli intelligence—wherein they recommended and pushed for a regime change operation in Iran—I would've listened to my advisers (who quite accurately predicted that the Israelis were blowing smoke) and told Israel to pound sand and stop trying to create moral hazards to get us involved in Middle Eastern conflicts.
So, for the umpteenth time to those in the back: stop picking sides in religious/ethnic/tribal conflicts in the Middle East, and get. Out. Of. There.
LEAVE THE MIDDLE EAST.