Donald Trump claimed once again last Friday ......
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| Trump Between A Rock And A Hard Price? |
.... that the U.S. has "already won" the war. However its now week ten of the war and counting, and he's now saying in his inimitable way that he wants to "win by a bigger margin," and ensure Iran can never attain a nuclear weapon.
Meaning he's having to consider yet more military action, as rather like the North Koreans, North Vietnamese and the Taliban before them, the Iranian mullahs simply refuse to acknowledge defeat, or give up their their Nuclear ambitions, or even their blockade of the Straits or Hormuz.
The limits of air warfare only have been exposed once again, and perhaps when the USA invaded Iraq they should have just continued into Iran to disarm them (its rumoured that the mullahs were afraid that's what was going to happen, and we're prepared to dismantle their Nuclear facilities to save their regime).
Now, because Trump went to war without Congressional approval or allies, apart from Israel who couldn't provide ground troops even if they had the political will to do so (which they don't), he has no backing for any ground force invasion (unlike in Kuwait and Iraq - Afghanistan was different as it was Article 5 of the NATO treaty after the US was attacked on 9/11), to force the Iranians to accede to his demands.
Between a rock and a hard place come to mind, and the mullahs know it. They keep offering tiny concessions, knowing that Trump will likely bite on the first offer that he can spin into yet another claim of "victory," before the Novembers mid-term elections.
Ultimately the Iranian regime has and will apparently survive, at least for now, and is very likely more hard-line than ever, it will have accelerated its nuclear ambitions, and with a tighter grip on its benighted population, also with a new cheap weapon that they can use on the world at any time ... the Straits of Hormuz.
Only Israel has achieved any of its war aims, a weakened Iran, with both Hezbollah and Hamas damaged, with Hamas probably finished as a threat, and Hezbollah likely set back a decade or so, as Iran will certainly not be able to finance them to anything like the pre-war levels, because they have to rebuild at home.
So on the face of it a total failure of a war, that's cost both the USA and Iran a great deal financially, and materially, and perhaps more damagingly for the Donald, possibly politically, with his MAGA supporters and the Republicans generally unhappy at the cost ($28 billion and counting plus dead US military personnel, the impact on the economy and the poor outcome, which has achieved little if any of the attacks initial aims.
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