John Mearsheimer

The regime remains in place.

What we tried to do in Iran was regime change.

Now, when we did regime change in the past, we had boots on the ground.

Remember Iraq?

Remember Afghanistan?

The last thing Trump wants to do is have boots on the ground.

He's not interested in engaging in social engineering.

That's why the protesters are so important.

They are, in effect, our boots on the ground.

But once that doesn't work,

Right.

Then you can't use American military power.

All this is to say there are great limits to what you can do with military power.

And this is something that I think Trump intuitively understands.

His predecessors did not understand that, which is why we invaded Iran.

I mean, excuse me.

invaded Iraq and engaged in social engineering with boots on the ground.

Trump understands you can't do that.

That's why he didn't pursue regime change in Venezuela, and it's why he's not putting boots on the ground in Iran.

But the point is that there are lots of people in the body politic who just think we can drive aircraft carriers into the region, use those aircraft carriers to topple the regime in Iran, and then march on to the next target.