Story highlights Andelman: With all these bridges burned this week, just what political leverage does Trump have to confront Iran with?

Without anyone standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Trump, this could be read as a pretty empty threat

David A. Andelman, editor emeritus of World Policy Journal and member of the board of contributors of USA Today, is the author of "A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 and the Price We Pay Today." Follow him on Twitter @DavidAndelman. The views expressed in this commentary are his own.

(CNN) When President Trump's national security adviser, Michael Flynn, arrived unannounced in the White House press room Wednesday and announced that "we're officially putting Iran on notice" -- a position the President clearly agrees with, as he made clear in a tweet Thurday morning -- after its latest ballistic missile test and several attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen, the most immediate question was this: or else what?

Gen. Flynn said the US, or at least he, was particularly upset because Iran was "threatening friends and allies in the region." The bigger question is whether the US really has very many friends and allies in that region or anywhere else. And without anyone standing shoulder-to-shoulder with President Trump, could this be read as a pretty empty threat?

Let's examine just what kind of room for bluster and challenge this administration might muster. The President could make good on yet another of his campaign promises and "tear up" the Iranian nuclear deal. The problem is that this is not simply a pact between the US and Iran, but rather between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (Britain, France, Russia, China, and the US) plus Germany. None of these other countries seems prepared right now to rush with the US into such an impetuous and ill-conceived action.

The other possible action the US could take would be to "snap back" a broad array of economic sanctions against Iran, the removal of which was the carrot for Tehran to agree to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.