The '"Total and Complete Victory"' achieved through a Great and Beautiful Bombardment seems more like half a defeat (2)

Sequel of (1)

Let's recap the outcome of the war in Iran according to Mr. Trump, who started it 9 weeks ago:

• March 9 - «I think the war is very complete, pretty much»
• March 11 - «We’ve got to finish the job»
• March 31 - «we are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly»
• April 1 - the war is «nearing completion»
• April 7 - «A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again»
• May 1 - hostilities have «terminated»

Let's look at the result of all these victories:

• Iran remains administratively and militarily functional, providing diplomatic responses and military retaliation.
• Iran has disabled a significant portion of US surveillance in the Middle East; half of the THAAD interceptors and Patriot interceptors equivalent to 5 years of production have been used.
• Iran forced American troops to abandon all of their air bases.
• The Iron Dome myth has been compromised.
• Tel Aviv has been severely hit in recent weeks.
• The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has given Iran enormous leverage, allowing it to exert significant pressure on the US.
• Iran maintains drone warfare, ballistic missile launch, submarine and combat capabilities.
• Iran is viewed as a victim by public opinion in several countries.

So, Mr Trump was right when he once derided “interventionalists” for “intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves” and he was mistaken in imagining that his transactional approach would have the same success with the ayatollahs, who are willing to sacrifice themselves and their people, as it had with the fearful democratic leaders he despises.