I’m just trying to figure what we could do with the drone. Persia is amazing at tying up the hands of their enemies and creating a serious divisive response. I wonder if somehow portions of Sun Tzu’s art of War might have been early conflicts with Persia( Elam).
If we actually retaliate ending up in a shooting war( Yemen is hot as is Syria) it spreads our soldiers and navy thin. If we do nothing Iran just keeps playing with the dragons tail. It would be best to have other countries most affected by this. Our history since 1979 has been pretty brutal with war in Lebanon, Iran/Iraq( playing both sides?) the Oil Tanker war, then all the mines and weapons since the Gulf war through 9/11 to Soetero’s pallets of money( Iran is a thorn no matter what we do) just doesn’t stop these people.
Not a tactician but if I could I’d avoid it.
I wont even try to table top the options. But I can tell you that all options, all resources, everything, is being considered. That’s the job of CENTCOM right now, and they didn’t start it last night. Planning is a continual process that has been going on forever. Best strategies for given situations are proposed, war gamed, and evaluated. New situations are looked at with current plans and evaluated for necessary plan changes. I have heard estimates of up to 2000 targets to respond to along the Iranian west and southern coast lines. I don’t know the actual number. That’s a lot, but in some since not too many that they couldn’t be addressed in a few days if enough assets are positioned to go. But anything like that will shut down the gulf for safe commercial traffic for a bit.
What would a conflict do to shipping in the area? What would a conflict mean to the Iraqi government, or the other countries in the region. Where are the Russians on this? All these questions and more are being asked. Many here have been saying that certain Arab states want us to have a war with Iran. Hmmm, maybe some do, but that would cost them an awful lot in lost income from exports amongst other things. So I am not so sure the Saud’s or the Emirates are really excited about missiles inbound on places like Dubai or their oil fields.
Every option will have a cost. Even doing nothing will have a cost as you point out. And the longer we delay something that is inevitable, the fewer options we have. If Iran goes nuclear, that’s fewer options still.
The president is asking CENTCOM right now, what are our options? CENTCOM is briefing those, telling POTUS what its going to take, and what the risks and unknowns are. I am not part of this process, but its the process so I know its taking place.
There are a lot of posters here that want to remove a necessary and critical option, the threat of force, from Trumps hand. That would be a mistake and its hyperventilation to assume it will lead to another Iraq. There are many options that don’t involve boots on the ground. I am sure that, given his record and actions so far, Trump is sincere in that use of force/war is a last resort. I will trust him to make the call.