Iran continues to lash out at its Arab neighbors, including the United Arab Emirates, where a drone recently struck a fuel tank and started a fire at Dubai International Airport.
President Donald Trump says he has demanded about seven countries send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz open after Iran set two fuel tankers in Iraqi waters ablaze last week, bringing shipping along the critical strait to a standstill.
And with poll numbers favoring Democrats in the midterm elections, political pressure for an exit ramp out of Iran is building.
"I think we have to lower expectations about how quickly this can be done," comments Gary Bauer, chairman of the Campaign for Working Families. "Historically, it has been very difficult to change a government without sending a massive land force into the country that you want to have a different government, and that's not going to happen. The president is not going to send in hundreds of thousands of troops into Iran."
Special ops are being considered for specific missions like nuclear security, but unless the situation escalates dramatically, a large-scale ground deployment is unlikely. Iran is large, mountainous and heavily defended. Some analysts say a raid would be extremely dangerous, complex and less practical than airstrikes.
Even if it comes to that, covert, short, high-risk raids would be expected – not an invasion.
Though the U.S. special forces' ground operation to remove Nicolas Madura from Venezuela was considered highly successful, Bauer is not convinced that removing Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei from Iran would have the same outcome.
"The reason I'm not as confident is because of the religious factor in this battle," he tells AFN. "The Iranian government — the people running it, the key people in their military — believe they are doing Allah's will. They believe they can bring back the appearance of the al-Mahdi, the 12th Iman, who will kill infidels —Christians and Jews."
In short, Bauer does not think it safe to assume that the Iranian leadership would react the same way previous enemies have.
