Wars often begin with confidence in distance—precision strikes, remote control, minimal exposure. It is a familiar American instinct, visible from the early days of the Gulf War to the opening phases of the campaign against ISIS. Air power promises disruption without entanglement. It rarely delivers resolution, writes M A Hossain.
That pattern is reappearing in the current confrontation with Iran. Airstrikes have degraded elements of Tehran’s missile and drone infrastructure, but degradation is not defeat. It is delay. Iran’s strategic posture—decentralized, redundant, patient—was built precisely to absorb such punishment. In that sense, the campaign is succeeding tactically while stalling strategically.
This is the moment when policymakers begin asking the question they hoped to avoid. If bombing does not compel change, what will?
The answer, increasingly whispered in Washington and occasionally stated aloud by figures like Donald Trump, is as old as war itself: troops. Not necessarily divisions marching toward Tehran, not yet. But something closer, more tangible, harder to reverse.
The temptation of the ‘small war’
The first step down that path is almost always framed as restraint. Special operations. Limited objectives. Surgical missions. The language is careful; the implications are not.
Elite units—SEALs, Delta Force, Green Berets—offer policymakers a seductive middle ground. They are politically quieter than conventional deployments and militarily more flexible. Congress hesitates to intervene. Public attention drifts. Failures, when they occur, can be contained—at least in theory.
But theory has a habit of colliding with memory. The shadow of Operation Desert Claw still lingers in American strategic thinking. A failed mission, a desert crash, a presidency weakened. The lesson was not simply about operational risk; it was about political fragility.
Iran presents an even more complex target set. Its nuclear program is dispersed, hardened, partially hidden. A raid to seize enriched uranium might delay the program, but only at considerable risk. Time—always the enemy of special operations—would become the decisive variable. The longer troops remain on the ground, the less “special” the operation becomes.
There are other options: sabotage facilities, eliminate commanders, support dissident networks. Each carries a logic. None offers finality. Iran’s military doctrine is deliberately fragmented; removing individuals does not collapse the system. It adapts. It absorbs. It continues.
So the “small war” remains what it has always been: an attempt to achieve strategic outcomes through tactical means. History suggests its limits are reached quickly.
Geography, and Its Unforgiving Logic
If escalation continues, the next phase will not be covert. It will be visible, measurable, and far harder to contain. Limited territorial operations—particularly along Iran’s coastline—represent the most plausible next step.
The deployment of Marine Expeditionary Units to the Persian Gulf is not a declaration of intent. It is a declaration of capability. Roughly 4,000 troops, amphibious ships, rapid insertion forces—these are tools designed for one purpose: controlled escalation.
The geography invites it. The Strait of Hormuz remains one of the world’s most critical energy corridors. Control over nearby islands—Qeshm, Kish, Abu Musa—offers leverage disproportionate to their size. Disrupt shipping, and you do not merely pressure Iran; you unsettle global markets.
Yet geography cuts both ways. Iran’s coastline is not defenseless. It is layered with radar systems, mobile missile batteries, naval assets designed for asymmetry. The United States would bring superior technology; Iran would bring proximity. Supply lines favor the defender. They almost always do.
Even a successful landing would not end the problem. Holding territory is a different exercise entirely. The United States learned this, painfully, in Iraq War. Rapid victory gave way to prolonged occupation. Tactical dominance dissolved into strategic exhaustion.
There is little reason to believe Iran would be easier. Its terrain is harsher. Its population larger. Its political structure more cohesive under external pressure. A coastal foothold could quickly become a liability—symbolic, costly, difficult to exit.
The illusion of decisive invasion
Beyond limited operations lies the option few openly advocate but many quietly analyze: full-scale invasion. It is the logical endpoint of escalation. It is also the least likely—and the most consequential.
The comparison with Iraq is unavoidable, and misleading in one critical respect. Iran is not Iraq. It is larger, more mountainous, more populous, and more ideologically mobilized. If the 2003 invasion required roughly 200,000 troops, Iran would demand far more—perhaps multiples of that number.
Logistics alone would be daunting. Regional allies would need to provide basing and supply corridors. Political consent would be uncertain. Domestic support, fragile even in the early stages, would erode as costs mounted.
And costs would mount. Not only in lives and resources, but in strategic focus. A prolonged war in Iran would inevitably divert American attention from other theaters—Europe, where deterrence remains fragile, and Asia, where competition with China defines the long-term horizon.
This is the paradox of great power conflict. Engagement in one region creates opportunity in another. Rivals do not wait; they adapt.
Even in the unlikely event of battlefield success, the aftermath would be the true test. Regime collapse does not equal stability. It rarely does. Afghanistan and Iraq offer sufficient evidence. Iran’s internal complexity—ethnic, political, religious—would complicate any attempt at reconstruction.
Victory, in such a scenario, would not end the war. It would begin a different, longer one.
The real question: Time
There is a deeper asymmetry at work in this conflict, one that no amount of military planning can fully resolve. The United States seeks outcomes—clear, measurable, preferably swift. Iran seeks endurance.
It is a familiar dynamic. Insurgent groups have relied on it for decades. States, too, can adopt it when facing a stronger adversary. Survival becomes strategy. Delay becomes victory.
“America needs victory; Iran needs tomorrow.” The line is not rhetorical. It is operational reality.
This is why the discussion of ground troops keeps returning, despite the risks, despite the history. Air power can punish. It cannot compel. Special operations can disrupt. They cannot decide. Territorial seizures can pressure. They cannot conclude.
Ground forces, in theory, can do all three. In practice, they introduce a new set of uncertainties—political, logistical, strategic—that often outweigh their advantages.
An Uncomfortable Conclusion
The debate in Washington is not really about whether boots on the ground are desirable. It is about whether they become unavoidable.
So far, the answer remains uncertain. The thresholds—economic shocks, direct attacks, escalation spirals—have not yet been crossed. But they exist, and they are closer than policymakers might prefer.
History offers a warning, not a prediction. Wars have a tendency to expand beyond their initial logic. Limited objectives evolve. Red lines blur. What begins as a campaign of pressure becomes, step by step, a commitment.
And once that commitment is made, reversal becomes difficult. Not impossible—but politically, psychologically, strategically costly.
The conversation about ground troops, then, is less about intention than trajectory. It reflects the quiet recognition that air power has limits, that adversaries adapt, and that wars—once begun—rarely remain contained.
Boots on the ground are not inevitable. But neither are they unthinkable. And in the calculus of modern conflict, that distinction matters less than it should.
M A Hossain is a senior journalist and international affairs analyst, based in Bangladesh. He can be reached at: writetomahossain@gmail.com
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