Your response highlights very well that the problem with the wars that we fought was that we were trying to engage in nation building. I understand that the post-World War II thinking was that by nation building we would ensure that our former enemies became friends, but we see in recent wars that this does not work.

When we look at the cost of the Iraq War, we see most of the cost was associated with the "nation building" aspect. If, instead of wasting that money, we just blew the living shit out of everything and left the country in ruins, it would probably deter the next nation that was "defying the US".

Specifically, if we took that approach with Iran we could bomb them for 90-180 days without respite, hitting State TV, the Ayatollah's home, Khomenei's Tomb, all indicia of power, all oil refineries, and destroy the regime completely without putting one boot on the ground. Hit the State Bank, hit the Basij buildings, hit everything associated with the Revolutionary Guard. Destroy the physical, economic and symbolic supports for the system, and then stop when there is no power left.

If it doesn't lead to a total collapse of the criminal regime of the Ayatollah, then we can repeat it every year or so for a couple of months until the regime collapses economically or politically.

And then they can rebuild with loans or advance oil sales, not with our money.

One thing that I disagree with Republicans on regarding the auto bailout is that I think after all the money we just dumped down the shitter in Iraq and Afghanistan building stuff that they blew up a week later, we can invest in our own damn industry.

But I digress.