Steelman · slot C
Authorise the strike, foreclose the quagmire
A realist foreign-policy hand would argue —The lesson of the last twenty years isn't that America should never use force in the Middle East — it's that we should never again hand a president an open-ended writ that mutates into occupation and nation-building. This draft does exactly what a sober authorisation should: it bars ground troops and caps the duration of any engagement. That lets the United States respond to a specific Iranian threat with airpower or stand-off strikes if necessary, while writing into law that there will be no march to Tehran, no decade-long deployment, no mission creep. Narrow authorities are how you deter adversaries without trapping yourself.