capable of taking on the full brunt of U.S. capabilities

US strategic options made public are like 300 but instead of guarding a choke point, they rush into higher defense ratios.

But we’ve also been using our own drones for more than 20 years now, longer than most other countries.

US is not among the 4 drone superpowers. Iran is one of these. US tech is old, expensive, and not high volume production.

you can’t ignore the fact that the U.S. is holding back so far.

The option they have threatened is mutual assured destruction of global economy. US has avoided Iran oil, and unsanctioned them during this war. It's hard to see why they would escalate more, even if Israel gets to veto.