Eli Lake, Columnist

The U.S. Has Lots of Options With Iran

The strategy is to “restore deterrence,” and the question is whether it can be done without loss of life.

June 20, 2019 at 10:30 PM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Headed into the Strait of Hormuz.
Photographer: -/AFP

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

There is a danger that Iran’s attack on a U.S. surveillance drone could turn America’s strategy of deterrence into a full-blown conflict. But the U.S. has several options short of a full war to respond to this latest provocation.

And President Donald Trump, who downplayed Iran’s non-lethal attack last week on two oil tankers near Oman, also downplayed the drone incident. “I find it hard to believe it was intentional,” he said Wednesday. “It could have been somebody who was loose and stupid.”