Over the years, as I saw the "General Rants" validated, repeatedly, I wondered what will get the US off of this trajectory. I'm still wondering.

Having a really bad outcome sometimes seems to work, at least for a time.

Vietnam left us with little appetite for large scale military adventuring, even to the point of rather significant restraint in our goals (if not execution) in the first Iraq war. The success of Desert Storm may have undone that for a while, laying the seeds for the belief in Afghanistan/Iraq war II that we could accomplish more through military might than perhaps was possible.

Our failure in Iran might not lead to changes immediately, since Trump may pivot to Cuba in order to hide the shame of how poorly that little 'excursion' turned out. But it will loom large, along with Russia's problems in Ukraine, as an example of how having a larger military - even an overwhelming military advantage - doesn't always mean you have the power to effectively dictate to another country. The Administration seemed to believe that as long as you have the ability to "tune up" another country or their government, that means they'll do what you tell them to. Iran is a contrary lesson.