In the aftermath of the American killing of Iran’s top general, Qassim Suleimani, and Iranian retaliation Tuesday against American personnel in Iraq, many are wondering what role cyberwarfare will play.

Cyberattacks certainly complicate things. A country that might not be able to attack the United States with an aircraft, missile or submarine can use a cyberattack to strike targets on American soil. And as the most common targets are civilian — electrical grids, hospitals, water supplies, transportation infrastructure — cyberwarfare disproportionately threatens citizens, linking American foreign policy with the everyday lives of ordinary Americans. It has the power to transform overseas crises into urgent domestic concerns.

So it’s no surprise that ordinary Americans are more alarmed by the specter of a cyberattack than by the distant threat of an Iranian attack in Iraq, Saudi Arabia or Israel.

But while the doomsday scenarios — of Iranian cyberattacks knocking out digitally dependent infrastructure like electric grids or health services — are alarming, they are a distraction. Tehran is a capable and prolific actor in the realm of cyberwarfare, but it has no proven ability to create large-scale physical damage through cyberoperations.