No. of Recommendations: 5
Agree and that is why nobody here has proposed invading Iran or anybody.
Literally no one has said, "Let's go invade Iran" and yet it keeps coming up.
That's exactly the point. Sinking an Iranian ship is an act of war. But if you're not willing to back it up with actual war against Iran, then the Iranian government knows that you're not going to do anything to really hurt them. There's no ultimate sanction of "regime change" on the cards, here.
I don't think you're proposing invading Iran. To the contrary. We're not willing to commit to an Iraq or Afghanistan-style operation over something like this. They don't have nukes (which is the ultimate deterrent), but they are a big enough country with a big enough conventional army and big enough allies that they're (ultimately) safe from the bulk of our military power as long as we're not willing to put boots on the ground.
We're not willing to invade. Iran knows we're not willing to invade. Which means that they have some degree of impunity in throwing their weight around regionally, because the worst we would do is briefly blow up the Middle East for a bit. Since we're not going to do that over the Houthis of all things, they know full well that a threat to attack is an empty one.
