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Source: https://nationalinterest.org/feature/in-the-iran-war-the-us-needs-strategic-patience
In the Iran War, the U.S Needs Strategic Patience
(National Interest) Joe Zacks - For the U.S. to get what it wants and needs in a deal with Iran will take strategic patience and time. The focus now should be on allowing the U.S. (and to a lesser extent Israel) to finish what was started - an aggressive challenge to a regime that for nearly half a century has murdered U.S. citizens, destabilized an already volatile region, and pursued a nuclear capability that would allow it to blackmail the region and beyond. If we are patient and allow the U.S. naval blockade to take full effect, a humbler Iran is likely to return to the bargaining table. If the newly instituted blockade of ships departing Iranian ports to transit the Strait of Hormuz is successful, the Iranian trump card over the strait will be lost. The Iranian regime will be deprived of desperately needed hard currency, and its Chinese sympathizers will be denied discounted oil purchases. By the standards of modern armed conflicts, this has not been a protracted military campaign. The U.S. has dealt the Iranian regime a horrific military blow, destroying much of its nuclear, ballistic missile, and drone programs, along with its air defenses, air force, and navy. It will take this already economically struggling country time and many billions of dollars to reconstitute its military and rebuild infrastructure damaged or destroyed in the conflict. Sanctions relief and rebuilding Iran's economy should only come when the regime demonstrates a commitment to relinquishing its nuclear aspirations, ballistic missile programs, and support to terrorist proxies. A final intense economic squeeze on what remains of this regime is the best chance for obtaining a negotiated settlement that checks and chastens Iran's military ambitions for many years to come. The writer is a former deputy assistant director for counterterrorism at the CIA and an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.