A Third Option
Someone said that Reagan took out half of Iran's Navy in one day as a response to their mining the oil shipping lanes. After that Iran quieted down for a while.
Maybe the U.S. should withdraw from the Middle East after taking out Iran's nuke program facilities? No invasion neccessary if what I recently read is correct. The U.S. policy could be non-intervention, but also preventing Islamic regimes from attaining nuclear weapons. Again, no invasions necessary, just air dominance.
This might be the wisest course since nuclear weapons definitely do not belong in the hands of Islamic regimes, especially Islamic regimes with strongly proactive anti-Western agendas.
Everything else regarding non-intervention could be the same, except for also instituting a policy of containment and ensuring that Islamic regimes do not become more powerful militarily. Forget the nation-building nonsense and stay away from actual invasions and ground wars. If they build up too much of a military or nuclear capability, degrade it substantially through air campaigns. Other than that leave them the heck alone. Why let our enemies get far more powerful? An air strike campaign on nuclear facilities (and associated military capabilities ued to defend those facilities) every decade or so ought to keep their threat in check.
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