Trump may be unable to end the war he started with Iran, even if he wanted to | CNN
www.cnn.com
A war that is “won” but also “not finished yet.” An “excursion” that requires Iran’s “unconditional surrender.” President Donald Trump’s rhetorical knots fit well with his style of dictating America’s information diet, but fall flat when they hit the gritty reality of conflict.

Trump is now caught in the oldest trap of modern warfare – believing a swift, surgical military operation will yield quick, enduring political results. The Soviets did it in Afghanistan; the US in Iraq in 2003; Putin did it in Ukraine, and is still fighting. Whatever force a military fails or succeeds in applying at the start, the people it is attacking have greater commitment to defending their lands and homes.

The White House may have rushed into this, seizing the opportunity for a decapitation strike, provided by Israeli intelligence. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has very different objectives regionally, and a long US involvement against Tehran suits his desire for an Iran in rolling collapse that is no longer a threat. But the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on February 28 has caused as many problems as it has solved.

  • DomeGuy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    20·
    9 hours ago

    Except in the first US gulf war, back in the early 90s. (Kuwait was attacked by Iraq. The USA spent months preparing and then three days attacking. Then stopped when Iraq surrendered.)

    Or the fall of the USSR. (Happened in about a month, no major fighting.)

    Or the Russian annexation of Crimea.

    It isn’t that short military exercises never yield results. It’s that wars persist until both attacker and defender believe peace is the best tactic.

    The USA bombing a country for whom fighting the USA is essentially their national myth is possibly the dumbest thing that my country has ever done.