As is often the case in large-scale military operations, logistics are crucial to success. Preparing, staging, and deploying a large, mechanized ground force is a massive and difficult undertaking, and in this case, the favorable points of entry are most likely Turkish territory or the ocean. It seems unlikely the United States could stage an invasion force in Iraq.

To say the prospective operation is “high-risk” might be an understatement. Any concentration of U.S. forces would immediately offer a target for Iran’s remaining precision-guided ballistic missiles.