Trump's Iran Gambit Has Strengthened a Weak Regime in Tehran
Wars are not about who has the better 'cards'
On April 7, President Donald Trump said the U.S. had won a “total and complete victory” after getting a two-week ceasefire deal with Iran. “100 percent. No question about it,” he told the AFP news agency.
However, strategically, the U.S. is worse off and Iran is better off since Trump joined Israel in a joint military operation that began on February 28. Considering that the U.S. is the world’s strongest military power, Israel is the strongest regional military power, and Iran had been badly weakened by Israel’s 12-day war in June, this would not seem to have been a likely scenario. But wars are not simply a contest of who has the better “cards” -- as Trump would say -- and this stronger player winning the game. They are a contest of achieving strategic goals -- reconciling means, ways, and ends -- set at the beginning of the war.
The U.S. has achieved almost none of its goals. At the outset of the war, Trump called for regime change. Iran’s military-backed theocracy remains in power, with the population that had revolted earlier in the year now weary after weeks of relentless bombing.
