Our military should have been cleared for cross-border attacks on identified near-border bases and staging points, using special forces, drones, or even conventional air forces. Go in, take them out, and leave. This should have started a long time ago, near the beginning of the war, when it would have had a chance to change some behavior when it would have been a lot more useful.

Same goes for Western Pakistan, although I believe Pakistan has decided to turn an official blind eye to such forays from NATO and U.S. forces if we can go by previous attacks.

While the borders are being fortified and patrols increased, there is still a lot of porosity. Iraq has enemies on both sides. Afghanistan mostly to the east, but the Afghanistan border is more rugged.

The biggest "ratline" from Iran is the pilgrimages to Iraqi holy sites, which started up again after the removal of Saddam. Most of the tens of thousands of pilgrims streaming in from Iran, cars, luggage and all, are legitimate. But not all of them. This needs to be controlled.