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Source: https://www.commentary.org/articles/jonathan-schanzer/us-victory-without-iran-surrender/
What Victory Looks Like When Your Foe Won't Surrender
(Commentary) Jonathan Schanzer - Israel and the U.S. certainly won the conventional war with the Iranian regime from Day One, flying into Iran with air superiority. But the regime countered by launching an asymmetric economic war, attacking vessels in the Strait of Hormuz as well as energy and other critical infrastructure belonging to the surrounding Gulf Arab states. Adherents to jihadism believe that their faith commands them to fight and that victory is inevitable, even if it takes decades. Adherents to Ayatollah Khomeini's 1979 Islamic Revolution view the world this way. When your enemy is the infidel, and your victory is ordained by Allah, your obligation is to keep fighting, even in defeat. Surrender is not an option. The Islamic Republic embraces this mindset. Military losses or economic pain are spun as proof of martyrdom and sacrifice, to be answered with even greater confidence in the revolution. But just because someone refuses to admit defeat doesn't mean he is immune to it. The relentless Israeli-American assault on the assets of the regime is undeniably taking its toll. The problem is that such things take time. The writer is executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.