I oppose nation building. I support standing off and causing massive destruction. Nukes are always on the table, as far as I’m concerned. The idea of cleaning up the damage afterwards ... why would we care? We won the war. Now stop causing trouble and rebuild yourself.
I was in the middle of the Persian Gulf when they fired a Silkworm at us. Lousy Chinese missile way back then, so no problem. But they’ve upgraded and that’s a narrow gulf, especially Hormuz.
That’s why we conquer it. They won’t be able to shoot because they won’t control the east coast of the Persian Gulf anymore.
It doesn’t make sense for an unstable nation to control any shore of that gulf.