Originally Posted by
Turbosina
I still do not see any reasonable exit strategy here. The options are still:
...
3) Put boots on the ground. Now not only will we be involved in a quagmire with precisely zero chance of "winning" (I do not believe any rational person assumes that the United States can successfully invade and occupy the entire nation of Iran.) Iran also happens to border many of the former USSR's territories, so what happens when we send in ground forces near those borders? This is how World War III could easily start.
Option 3 isn't exactly "full scale invasion or nothing". There are levels of ground involvement that don't require toppling the Iranian gov or occupying Tehran. The MEU, for instance, could be used to conduct amphibious and/or air assault raids against suspected missile/rocket launcher sites and mine laying ops/cells in order to prevent Iranian interdiction of commercial shipping in the straight. Of note, I'm using the Joint DoD definition of raid - which requires that the operation must end in a planned withdrawal.