It's hard to believe but we're effectively in the post-Iran War period. The Trump administration is out of military options. Its last effort, "blockading Iran's blockade," is unlikely to result in an Iranian surrender.
Trump can maintain the blockade as long as he wants, but at some point will have to admit the war has not achieved any of its stated goals:
1. End Iran's uranium enrichment program and seize its existing highly enriched uranium
2. Eliminate Iran's missile and drone warfare capabilities
3. End Iran's ability to work through proxies
Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis
In other words, barring some startling and unexpected development, the U.S. has lost the war - and in record time.
Putting aside the fact that there has never been any good reason to go to war with Iran in the first place (a great article on this by David Stockman a few days ago), it is breathtaking how incompetently the entire project
was managed.
First, the administration tried to win the war solely with air power - something that has never been done in history. Neither is history kind to the "decapitation" strategy, which is to try to kill the adversary's leadership in one, decisive strike.
Trump then began moving ground troops into the region for some half baked plan to seize Kharg Island or
send our troops on some other fools errand. Fortunately, it seems that he has been talked out of that poor decision without getting hundreds of troops killed for nothing.
And so, his last hand to play is the blockade and its a weak one. The Iranians are fighting for their existence. They are used to suffering under economic sanctions and have no choice but to fight to the last man. The empire, on the other hand, has an
enormous amount to lose and the pain hasn't even really started yet.
Iran will outlast the empire, handing it yet another loss in addition to Afghanistan and Ukraine.
And we're being treated to the same gaslighting the empire subject us to just before losing the other two wars. Do you remember the Afghan Army the U.S. supposedly spent over a decade training to
defeat the Taliban after the U.S. left? It crumbled even before the empire's planes got off the ground.
Then there were the assurances in 2022 that Putin was about to be deposed, or killed, or die of an illness. And how the Russian economy would be destroyed within months by the U.S. sanctions (just like Trump is saying about Iran's today).
And in both
cases, the day came when we realized it was all lies.
This could be the moment where the whole world - including the American public - realizes the empire has no clothes. But does it mean America's best years are behind it? Not necessarily. Trump promised to "Make America Great Again" but also to put "America First." Whether it is possible to do both depends upon one's definition of "greatness."
I talk in more detail about this on today's episode of Tom Mullen Talks Freedom.