Five years after Trump quit the JCPOA, efforts to revive it have given way to obituaries. But it is not entirely clear yet what the United States sees as the path forward.
Terrible as the Gaza war’s toll has already been, it would get worse if sustained fighting were to erupt between the U.S. and Iran or its Middle East allies.
So much of the commentary suggests that a forceful U.S. military operation inside Iran would scare the ayatollahs straight. Yet the evidence in support of that conclusion is weak to nonexistent. Iran has retaliated to previous U.S. and Israeli attacks repeatedly.
What’s the most reliable pathway to curbing the Iran-fomented violence that followed the Gaza war? It’s to bring that conflict to a quick end.
