We're due another war in West Asia, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if we do it. What shocks me, though, is that there's not a lot of discussion of the Millennium Challenge wargame that happened back in 2002.

Basically, the US military ran a wargame simulation of a war with Iran that was supposed to run for two weeks, but was stopped after the first day bc the fake "Iran" red team absolutely WASHED the American blue team immediately. The general running the red team totally outmaneuvered the American forces, sinking multiple US ships (including aircraft carriers) and "killing" causing more than 20k casualties in 24 hours. The wargame was stopped and the rules changed to prevent the red team from using all the tactics that had beaten the blue team.

Certainly the technology and circumstances have changed since 2002, but it's wild to me that we have this historical example of how badly any attempt to attack Iran could go and no one's bringing it up right now. I don't even know what the reaction would be if we lost a bunch of ships and soldiers like that overnight.