No they can’t, nor can’t any other country, including Russia and China....however, as we’ve seen before, it’s all about the narrative and shaping public opinion here and abroad.
I’ve said for a long time that while we had all the assets in Iraq, we should have next turned the guns on Iran.
“Does Iran think they can challenge us?”
Up to this point in time, “yes”. Look at how all our Presidents til Mr Trump have followed basically the “Carter Doctrine” with regards to Iran. We may have the military power to destroy them. But under the Carter Doctrine, we have not had the will to show them otherwise - they mess with us, no matter how small, it will cost them more.
The NYT might be premature - it is too close in time to the event to know whether there was a “brink of war” scenario. It makes for good headlines. I am sure they wrote something similar when Reagan walked away from Gorbachev’s fake “peace offering” in Iceland. Taking out Mr “Salami” might actually cause internal changes in Iran that ends the nightmare the people there, and the rest of the region, have lived through over the past 40 years.