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They said they would retaliate against US assets in the region if they were attacked, and then the US attacked, so now they kind of have to. In 1973 OAPEC announced that they were going to stop selling oil to countries that supported Israel in the Yom Kippur war, which rather quickly caused the US to rein in the israelis. Perhaps Iran is making a similar bet now.

Iran is a very large country, to make it into "a parking lot" would take many years, during which time we'd have a global recession and core US partners in the region would collapse.

Unlike what some would have you believe, the iranian leaders are generally quite thoughtful and educated. It's not an Idi Amin regime, or the occident would be supporting it.