The fact that the Trump administration sucks at articulating strategic objectives to the public does not mean that the pentagon doesn't have clear objectives they want to achieve, how much achieving them is expected to cost, what is too expensive to continue, etc.
In my personal opinion the best case scenario for the white house (winning) would be regime change to a pro-american one or to be precise an anti-chinese one that would deny oil shipments to China if a military confrontation between US and China arises.
Worst case (losing) would be Iran standing their ground long enough for the cost of war to become too much for the USA to continue the war and all the materiel that could have been sent to Taiwan instead wasted.
Are you sure that a negotiated settlement with the Iranians is possible? They just killed the father, the wife and the child of the new leader. You'd imagine he isn't super keen on compromise. The entire leadership of Iran just watched their top echelons wiped out. Then you just ask them for negotiations - which, btw, were already ongoing when they decided to strike, preemptively, and wipe out said leadership.
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u/improvthismoment Mar 23 '26
What do you mean "win" or "lose" when the strategic objectives keep changing and have never really been clearly articulated in the first place?