No. of Recommendations: 1
How is that different from striking a compound in Beirut? Or launching cruise missiles in Afghanistan (as Clinton did)? Those were actual sovereign territory, not international waters.
Lebanon and Afghanistan are small, weak countries. We attacked military targets in the countries that attacked our interests, not third party nations that supported those countries. And as you mention, it's entirely a different thing to attack military assets in a foreign country than to attack a vessel in international waters - because while no one cares that Afghanistan had their airspace violated after supporting terror attacks, lots of nations care if the US arrogates to itself the authority to attack vessels in international waters.
So we consistently attack Houthi targets in Yemen, in retaliation for their attacks on our interests....but we're not going to take out a Iranian-flagged vessel in international waters. Iran knows it, so bluffing a response against Iran is against our interests.
There is a difference between a "bully" and a nation that is using its regional military power to advance its foreign policy objectives within its sphere of influence. Not every entity that engages in aggression is a "bully" that can be dissuaded merely by standing up to them - sometimes the aggressor actually has some strength, and can and will impose costs on you that you're not willing to pay just to stop their aggression at that point. There are plenty of things we would go to war with Iran over, but their providing support resources to the Houthis isn't one of them.
