Tactical Success, Strategic Failure? Washington Walks the Path to Defeat in Iran
by colonCapitalDee on 4/14/2026, 9:00:05 PM
Comments
by: shawndrost
It seems to me that Trump's second term foreign policy is obsessed with dismantling the "shadow" oil market -- ending the system where China captures upside when sanctioned countries like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela sell oil, in yuan to boot -- without losing face or deterrence. They have arguably been successful at that objective in Iran and Venezuela, and I forget what's going on with Russia, but you can see the administration working on that front too. (I say this as a Biden stan and someone who thinks the Iran war is bad chess and bad morals.)<p>The other place I'd push back on this article is its belief that America doesn't want to trim the grass in Iran every few years. We are pretty committed to Iran not having nukes and the American people seem to have liked this war and the earlier strike pretty well.
4/15/2026, 4:25:53 AM
by: jacknews
The US will either have a long and painful and ultimately unfruitful ground war, or will have to accept some of Iran's terms for a ceasefire which will leave Iran in a stronger geopolitical situation than before the war.<p>A third option is for the US to throw Israel under the bus and either cut military funding to them, or force them to contain themselves by treaty, join the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, and so on, under that threat.<p>Since Israel have been goading for this war, spoiling any diplomacy (by killing the Iranian diplomats), and seem to have no intention of ceasing fire until Iran is completely fractured, I think they are the ones who need to be stopped.<p>Iran would perhaps re-agree to the terms and inspections they were previously under if Israel were also forced to submit. America would then re-establish it's authority in the region to some extent.
4/15/2026, 4:23:59 AM
by: wpollock
It's probably not wise to say so on HN, but one possible strategic goal of this war was to distract from the Epstein files.
4/15/2026, 4:03:18 AM
by: legitster
> And, unfortunately, if there is any strategic sense left in the Iranian regime, it now understands that having a nuclear weapon is no longer an optional hedge for its evil system’s survival and power. It is a strategic necessity. Iran has effectively established itself as gatekeeper of the Strait of Hormuz — a fundamentally different status quo than existed before the conflict, giving Tehran a durable form of economic leverage it did not previously possess.<p>I'd feel remiss not to point out that we had all of the objectives in Iraq completed within 3 weeks - it was the nation building cleanup that became the quagmire.<p>After 6 weeks in Iran we are worse off than we started and the long term implications are so much worse.<p>By all accounts the JCPOA was a success and working effectively when Trump cancelling it in 2018. We're here because he felt the need to solve the problem of his own making.
4/15/2026, 4:20:07 AM
by: enlightenedfool
Iran just needed to survive. There is no expectation for it to win against the nuclear super powers. It's a wonder it survived even for this long.
4/15/2026, 4:07:47 AM
by: aaron695
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4/15/2026, 3:58:32 AM