The Fantasy of the Iran “Commando Option”

Brandan P. Buck

A week and a half into the Iran war, supporters of the conflict have already begun proposing new ways to achieve its shifting objectives. The latest, and perhaps most ambitious, has been to use Special Operations Forces (SOF) raids to seize Iran’s dispersed stockpiles of highly enriched uranium. Proponents argue that such raids could accomplish a critical war aim without committing the United States to another “forever war.” In reality, the so-called “commando option,” while perhaps technically feasible...