Analyse: Trumps Iran-Strategie riskiert langfristige strategische Folgen, die schlimmer sind als der Irak oder Vietnam, argumentiert der ehemalige NATO-Gesandte

Iraq was predominately flat and it was much smaller than Iran. We had the Badr Brigade in the South and Kurdish Peshmergas in the North to cooperate with us and provide the invasion with some sort of grassroots support.

By contrast, Iran’s terrain is extremely rugged. Half of the country is just straight mountains. We don’t have any insurgents with territorial control to push over the hump. We would be going in totally raw and hoping that they invite us as liberators.

I don’t think everyone in the region is on board with it either. In particular, Kurds in Iraq know that if the regime falls down then Turkey is going to be even more meddlesome in their affairs and fill in some of the power vacuum. Pakistan and Azerbaijan would also receive tons of refugees that I do not think that they can handle.