By sending troops to Syria, the U.S. has prevented some key locations in that country from falling into the hands of the Russian-Iranian-Syrian alliance. But, with Islamic State deprived of its territory and rebel forces on the defensive, most of the country is now under the control of Moscow and/or Tehran. This result, argues Reuel Marc Gerecht, is a sign that the White House, while saying all the right things about the nature of the Islamic Republic, has done little to accomplish its own stated goals:
What Washington needs to do to roll back Iranian gains runs smack into what the Trump administration is prepared to do, which so far hasn’t been much. The president’s rhetoric against Iranian militancy has been tougher than Ronald Reagan’s or George W. Bush’s harshest orations. But Trump’s accomplishments on the ground have been few. The administration really has two options: to punish Iran economically or to roll back the mullahs militarily through the use of U.S. forces. . . .
To punish Iran economically, the White House could withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and reinstate all of the sanctions waived by the nuclear deal. Or it could keep the accord, as it is doing, but launch a tsunami of executive-branch sanctions against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, effectively shutting off most of the trade and finance allowed by the JCPOA. Such actions would end the illogic of trying to push back against the Islamic Republic while fueling its economy. So far, the administration is doing neither. . . .
If [President Trump] walks away from his predecessor’s nuclear accord, however, the administration would have to be prepared for the clerical regime to test Washington’s resolve by openly reanimating parts of the nuclear program that had been slowed or dismantled. That means preventive military strikes, which the White House has so far shown no willingness to entertain. The same logic holds if Trump were to decide to deploy U.S. forces directly against Iran and its many Shiite militias in Syria: the nuclear deal most certainly will die when more than a handful of American soldiers perish.
Read more on Caravan: https://www.hoover.org/research/countering-iran-while-retreating