When it comes to dealing with hostile, intractable states like Iran, Washington’s foreign policy establishment too often finds itself trapped in a paralyzing binary. On one side are the isolationists and appeasers who believe we must simply manage American decline and tolerate the aggression. On the other are the neoconservative remnants who believe the only solution is full-scale invasion, occupation, and nation-building.
But history offers a third option, one that policymakers used to understand: the punitive war.
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