{"id":124629,"date":"2026-03-18T09:00:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T13:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cablemanpro.com\/wallstreetpr\/winning-the-battles-losing-the-war-america-must-define-the-endgame-in-iran-124629"},"modified":"2026-03-18T09:00:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T13:00:25","slug":"winning-the-battles-losing-the-war-america-must-define-the-endgame-in-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cablemanpro.com\/wallstreetpr\/winning-the-battles-losing-the-war-america-must-define-the-endgame-in-iran-124629","title":{"rendered":"Winning the battles, losing the war? America must define the endgame in Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Pentagon’s briefings on Operation Epic Fury leave no room for debate: the U.S.-Israeli air campaign has hammered Iran.\u00a0Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth<\/a> confirmed more than 15,000 targets struck. Tehran’s air defenses are in ruins. Its navy is wrecked.\u00a0Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine reported Iran’s ballistic missile launches against Israel and Gulf partners are down 90 percent\u00a0since the first day of the war. By every battlefield measure, this campaign has delivered a punishing blow to the regime.<\/p>\n

But wars are not won on target lists. They are won when military force produces a durable political outcome. More than two weeks into this campaign, that outcome remains undefined. That is the problem.<\/p>\n

Consider the economic fallout. The Strait of Hormuz<\/a> \u2014 the chokepoint through which\u00a0roughly one-fifth of the world’s daily oil supply moves\u00a0\u2014 is effectively closed. Tanker traffic has stopped.\u00a0Oil has blown past $100 a barrel, with Brent crude touching $119 before Iran’s new supreme leader doubled down on keeping the strait shut. The\u00a0International Energy Agency called it the largest oil supply disruption in the history of the global oil market. That is not a rounding error. That is inflation, economic drag and political pressure on every Western government involved.<\/p>\n

TRUMP SUDDENLY SEEMS ANXIOUS TO END THE WAR AS AMERICAN CASUALTIES MOUNT AND IRAN FINDS WAYS TO HIT BACK<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The military cost<\/a> is just as serious. Tomahawks, Patriots, long-range strike missiles \u2014 the precision weapons that define American warfighting \u2014 are being burned at extraordinary rates.\u00a0The Pentagon told Congress this week that the first six days of Operation Epic Fury cost more than $11.3 billion, and that figure does not include pre-deployment costs or munitions replacement.\u00a0Defense analysts and current officials warn the Iran campaign is drawing down the precise weapons stockpiles the United States would need to deter China in the Pacific \u2014 and that depleted inventories will take years to replace. Every Tomahawk fired over Tehran is one less available for the Taiwan Strait.<\/p>\n

The human cost is real and irreversible.\u00a0At least seven American service members were killed in combat operations before Thursday. Then\u00a0all six crew members of a KC-135 aerial refueling aircraft were confirmed dead after the tanker went down over western Iraq\u00a0while supporting combat strikes.\u00a0Secretary Hegseth acknowledged the loss, saying “war is hell, war is chaos” and calling the airmen “American heroes, all of them.”\u00a0They are also sons and daughters of American families \u2014 a fact that demands an honest accounting of what we are asking them to achieve.<\/p>\n

Despite the pounding, the Iranian regime has not collapsed.\u00a0Tehran installed Mojtaba Khamenei<\/a> \u2014 the slain supreme leader’s son, described by analysts as a hardliner with deep IRGC ties \u2014 as the new ruler within days of the war starting. The\u00a0Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps backed him immediately, and he has already vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed and promised to attack every U.S. base in the region. This is not a regime on the verge of surrender.<\/p>\n

The IRGC and Iran’s ruling clerics do not view this war purely as a geopolitical contest. They see it as a religious fight<\/a> \u2014 a defense of the Islamic Republic against what they describe as an American-Zionist assault. Regimes that fight in God’s name are not easily coerced by bomb tonnage. That is not an excuse for weakness. It is a reality that must shape strategy.<\/p>\n

EX-NAVY SEAL WARNS WITHDRAWING FROM IRAN NOW WOULD HAND ‘VICTORY’ TO REGIME<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

History drives the point home. Conventional airpower has never toppled a determined government by itself. Not in World War II. Not in Korea, Vietnam, Kosovo, Iraq, or Afghanistan. Air campaigns degrade capability and shape battlefields. They do not deliver political collapse \u2014 not without a ground force or an internal revolt. Neither is coming.<\/p>\n

That raises the central strategic question: what exactly is the United States trying to achieve? President Trump set clear objectives \u2014\u00a0deny Iran nuclear weapons<\/a> and destroy its ability to threaten its neighbors with missiles and drones. After almost three weeks of strikes, those goals are within reach. But Trump has also\u00a0suggested he wants to approve Iran’s next leader and questioned whether the Islamic Republic itself should survive. That is not counterproliferation. That is regime change \u2014 and regime change requires far more than an air campaign.<\/p>\n

The question now is not whether America can keep striking Iran. Of course it can. The question is whether more strikes move the country toward a defined end state \u2014 or simply run up the cost of a war with no finish line.<\/p>\n

Three steps point the way out.<\/strong><\/p>\n

First, complete the remaining military objectives: suppress residual missile launch capability,\u00a0clear Iranian mines threatening the Strait of Hormuz, and finish the nuclear infrastructure work. Get the job done, then stop.<\/p>\n

Second,\u00a0define publicly what “done” looks like. The administration has been deliberately vague on the campaign’s end point. That ambiguity may serve short-term messaging, but it rattles markets, unnerves allies and leaves the American public in the dark about what this war is for.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Third, shift from large-scale strikes to sustained pressure:\u00a0maritime security operations to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, aggressive sanctions enforcement, interception of Iranian weapons transfers and a credible deterrent posture against renewed aggression. Keep the boot on Tehran’s throat without an open-ended air campaign.<\/p>\n

In plain terms: finish the military mission, then stop widening the war.<\/p>\n

The United States and Israel have won the opening rounds of this fight. The danger now is the pattern that played out in Iraq and Afghanistan \u2014 early military success followed by years of costly, inconclusive war that erodes the original victory. America has the firepower to keep striking Iran indefinitely. What it needs is the strategic discipline to stop when the mission is accomplished.<\/p>\n

The men and women executing this campaign<\/a> deserve more than tactical wins. They deserve a strategy as disciplined as their service.<\/p>\n

And so does the country.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM ROBERT MAGINNIS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source – https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/opinion\/winning-battles-losing-war-america-must-define-endgame-iran <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pentagon’s briefings on Operation Epic Fury leave no room for debate: the U.S.-Israeli air campaign has hammered Iran.\u00a0Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed more than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_2902945987_2902945987":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[16563],"tags":[],"stock_ticker":[],"class_list":["post-124629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-market-news","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWinning the battles, losing the war? 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