Originally posted by: Boilerman
It's not free to me. I'm paying far more than my share of the costs.
When my kids were growing up, I explained how every boy will experience others who want to push them around. These kids are often bigger and stronger. I told me boys that they could choose to take if for years, or they could fight, and fight these kids hard. I explained that they may lose the fight, but make sure that they cause the other guys damage and pain. It will then be done. This policy worked for boys and it'll work with Iran.
Since we've learned that Iran intentionally hit nothing, I would be hope that we're open to talking with Iran. Tell them one more attack, proxy or direct, and their oil production gets cut by 50%. When that next attack happens, hit their oil product hard.
The world is a wee bit more complex than a grade school playground. I learned that when I left grade school. Why didn't you?
The problem with your analogy is that the US is the bully here, not Iran. In relative terms, it's like a gorilla fighting a cocker spaniel. Iran can annoy us; we can destroy Iran. Therefore, we shouldn't treat this like an existential threat that we have to kill thousands of people to stop.
Iran didn't "intentionally hit nothing"--they conducted an attack that was unlikely to cause significant casualties (their missiles aren't so accurate that they could target specific buildings or small areas). You're right about one thing, though--their response was remarkably restrained. For now.
It's a certainty that Trump will, to avoid appearing weak, further escalate things--and then, so will Iran.
