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Source: https://www.jns.org/opinion/column/the-failed-war-narrative-on-iran-is-political-spin
The "Failed War" Narrative on Iran Is Political Spin
(JNS) Jonathan S. Tobin - The debate currently taking place about the Iran war is not about the desirability of stopping Iran's nuclear ambitions, its ballistic-missile program, or ending its status as the world's leading state sponsor of terror. It's an assertion that the U.S.-Israel military campaign is failing in its goals. And that is palpably false. No matter what follows, there is no question that the devastation of Iran's military capabilities, nuclear facilities, and missile program has, at the very least, set back the regime's ability to make mischief and inflict pain on the region for years to come. Should the campaign continue, that damage will be compounded. No longer is Iran the "strong horse" of the Middle East. It's true that the conflict with Iran will never end until the Islamists are out of power. If Trump accepts a truce at some point with the theocrats still in control, Tehran will declare itself victorious. Yet what Trump and the Israelis have done is give the regime's opponents a better chance of success. The U.S. and Israel have cut their oppressors down to size, killing their leaders and many of their operatives, and, perhaps most importantly, humiliating them with a resounding military defeat. Even if the Iran campaign ended immediately, the devastation that it wrought on the regime should still be counted as a success. Israel has suffered through weeks of missile attacks, including some that have caused casualties and significant property damage. The U.S. has also suffered military casualties. But a dispassionate analysis would have to acknowledge that a dangerous regime that considers itself at war with the West, and allied to China and Russia, has been rendered far weaker. Whatever chance the Iranians had of racing to a nuclear weapon or achieving their hopes to dominate the Middle East is gone. The war is not a personal project of Trump or Netanyahu. It is one started by the Islamists themselves. What Trump has done is to stop pretending that this existential struggle is something that can be solved by Western compromises. The effort to strip the mullahs of their military assets and make it much harder, if not impossible, to regain the strength they possessed before the current conflict was set in motion by the Oct. 7 atrocities. At worst, the current conflict is a limited victory over a dangerous foe that will make the next round of conflict less dangerous for the West and Iran's Middle Eastern neighbors. At best, it has started a process that will eventually end with the collapse of an evil regime and the removal of one of the greatest threats to peace on the planet.