I gave you the answer to it. It did not require war. It required allowed pilots with nice large missiles and bombs to be allowed to shoot back without having to go through Mother May I's to do so. Hit them like that and it would stop. We needed to fish or cut bait in Iraq we did neither one. Now our military is tied up in Iraq as is a sizable portion of our resources and hey guess who decided that would be the perfect time to test us again? Two nations thousands of miles apart only now we have limited capabilities thanks to poor planning. Our best hope to take care of Iraq and Iran would have been to let them continue to beat the snot out of each other. Now they are united against us.
Someone failed to study M.E. culture both in the White House and state department which is actually running the war anyway. They will fight each other till an outsider fights one of them then they become quick friends till that war is over. Iraq and Iran hate each other but now hate us more.
I have a question. A United States Navy ship was fired upon and sailors died within months of the end of the Clinton term and beginning of the Bush term. Why did both Clinton and Bush let that slide? Is Yemen our friend? In 1981 they threatened an attack on the U.S. Navy. No they were not friends to our Navy but trade friends. Which is why using a U.S. Navy ship for a stupid diplomatic reason got sailors killed. They didn't even need the fuel.
We could have bombed Iraq till kingdom come and it wouldn't have put Hussein out of power. We had to send ground troops into to do that.