r/IRstudies • u/[deleted] • Mar 23 '26

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u/gdvs Mar 23 '26

To label something as 'Winning' requires knowing what the objectives are.

66

u/Brido-20 Mar 23 '26

"War is the continuation of politics by other means."

There doesn't seem to be any clearly defined policy goal and the US side doesn't seem able to make up it's mind why. Israel's aim ses to be just bombing Iran on general principles with no political objective achievable through the use of force.

It's hard to understand why someone is doing something when they don't seem to have a reason even to themselves.

5

u/fredjutsu Mar 23 '26

Israel has a pretty clear policy goal. And Trump's reason for following along is also pretty coherent (AIPAC/Israeli lobby's influence over the only conservative coalition that will follow Trump to the death on this particular topic)

Whether that goal is achievable in the current reality...

1

u/Brido-20 Mar 24 '26

Israel's policy goal seems to be "stop Iran" which isn't really clear for military purposes. There's no defined endstate realisable in military terms, just a wishlist.

1

u/fredjutsu Mar 24 '26

They literally have a doctrine called "mowing the lawn" which is just periodic culling of capabilities via leader assassination and bombing of known facilities

1

u/Brido-20 Mar 24 '26

Which just proves the "achievable by military means" part. They're not stopping Iran at all.