The U.S-Iran war: A war in search of a mission
The United States together with Israel have always dreamed of destroying Iran especially after the 1979 Islamic Revolution which saw the outsing of the U.S -Israel puppet regime of Shah Reza Pahlavi.
Naturally, with its wounded ego, the U.S had to punish the Iranians for their "rebellion".
Over the years since the end of the Islamic Revolution, the U.S has given Iran a rough time.
At the hand of the mighty U.S.A, Iranians have faced numerous military campaigns against their territory. Notably, is the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-1988 where the U.S supported Saddam Hussein of Iraq to launch a war against the Islamic Republic.
This came shortly after the country had gone through the tide of a Revolutionary war, before the it could fully stand on its feet.
Iran has faced sanctions and global isolation at the hands of the brutal Americans.
Furthermore, the U.S jointly with Israel have ocassionally assassinated Iran's top military commamders and nuclear scientists.
But then came U.S president Donald Trump in his second term(2024).
He appears to have come to finish the mission of shattering the Islamic Republic of Iran.
However, things don't seem to be moving as he planned.
The U.S and Israel first launched a miltary campaign against Iran in June 2025 under the pretext of destroying Iran's nuclear capabilities. This, they codenamed "Midnight Hammer" and "Raising Lion" respectively.
Since then, they have been launching several miltary campaigns against the country amidst occasional demands for ceasefires, change of codenames for their Operations and most surprisingly, occassional change of motivation for their military campaign and subsequently, occasional change of strategies for the same military campaign.
Trump started off with staging negotiations in June, 2025 which he abruptly abandoned and stood behind Israel to launch attacks on Iran's military and nuclear infrastructure.
With this, Trump probably sought to militarily dismantle Iran's nuclear capabilities.
This was evidenced when during the so called 12-day war, Trump ordered the bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities using bunker-buster bombs. The Americans named this operation "Midnight Hammer".
Just over 6 months later, President Trump staged another round of talks with the Iranians. It seems that Trump sought to use these negotiations to force Iranians into a diplomatic surrender.
He probably assumed that having been struck by Israel and U.S just a few months earlier, the Iranians were weakened and a bit less adamamnt than they had been before.
In Februrary 2026, Trump's focus had shifted from Iran's nuclear program to trying to curb Iran's ballistic missile program. His motive for engaging with the Iranians then turned to curbing Iran's ballistic missile program.
Influenced by the Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S president Donald Trump demanded that the Iranians shorten the range of their missiles to just about 500km!
Iran's arch enemy in the region is Israel and the two countries are over 2,000 kilometers apart.
Important to note however, is that the plot had now changed from just curbing Iran's nuclear program to curbing Iran's missile program too! This, after witnessing the missiles' effectiveness during the so called 12 day war in June 2025.
Arrogantly, Trump was now demanding an independent country, with enemy bases around its territory, to become toothless!
Realising that the Iranians prioritised their dignity over anything else, the motives for Trump's aggression against Iran changed.
In late February 2026, President Trump together with Isaeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched another military assualt on Iran. This, they dubbed "Epic Fury."
The motivation here was regime change.
Not surprisingly, the first day of this operation saw the assassination of Iran's long time Supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He was killed along with almost all Iran's top military command.
Another motive for this operation was to sow discord amongst the Iranians.
The Americans and Israelis assumed that the demise of the Supreme Leader would empower the opposition of the country.
They hoped that the opposition supporters of the country would use the Supreme Leader's demise to rise up against the now "weakened" regime.
This of course did not happen. The brutal attacks on their country seemed to unite the Iraniansi instead.
Furthermore, the Iranians' resolve became stronger.
Amidst the war, as a way of breaking this renewed resolve, president Trump mulled over taking over Iran's Kharg island. This island is the economic lifeline for Iran's oil exports. It processes around 90% of the nation's crude oil.
Trump blatantly declared that it had always been his dream to capture this oil island! The motive then changed from curbing Iran's nuclear and missile programs to trying to control Iran's oil resources!
During the war, Iran choked the global economy by effectively closing the strait of Hormus.
The Strait of Hormuz is the world's most critical maritime energy chokepoint, facilitating the passage of roughly 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG). Connecting the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea, it serves as the sole sea outlet for major oil producers like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Qatar, and the UAE. [ 2,]
By effectively closing this wayerway during the war, the Iranians gained leverage over the United States. World leaders started pressuring the U.S president to ensure safe navigation of commercial ships or halt hostilies with Iran, as the world could not stand the economic stagnation that the war was causing.
This pushed President Trump into negotiating for a quick ceasefire with Iran thereby signing a Memorandum of Understanding where most of the terms favored Iran. This agreement was reached in mid June, 2026.
As part of the MOU, Iran was to be relieved of oil sanctions, have the blockade on its ports lifted, among other terms that mainly favored the Islamic Republic.
Apparently, this MOU also stipulated that there should be free and safe navigation through the strait of Hormus.
Article 5 of the memorandum of understanding states that: "Iran will use its best efforts to facilitate safe, toll-free commercial passage for 60 days, clear military and technical obstacles within 30 days, and hold discussions with Oman over the waterway's future management. [1, 2]
This clause has become the primary catalyst for the collapse of the US-Iran ceasefire.
The two nations hold completely different interpretations of the article.
While the United States views the articles as a multilateral guarantee for free, safe navigation and international coordination through the strait, Tehran interprets the clause as recognizing its sovereign, exclusive authority and control to administer the Strait under Iranian arrangements.
Even after the signing of the MOU where it was agreed that Iran completely reopen the stait of Hormus for free shipping, the Iranians are determined to maintain their control over the strategic waterway.
They have set new guidelines for transiting the strait and whichever ship fails to adhere to these guidelines is met with drones and missiles.
Egoistic as the Americans are, they can not ofcourse, allow Iran to permanently use the Hormus card as leverage in war times .
The Americans therefore used the two months of ceasefire well, re organised their military and came back with a new strategy of completely destroying Iran's naval capabilities.
The war between Iran and U.S was re launched in July, this time with the U.S focusing on Iran's coastal towns apparently, to weaken Iran's naval capabilities thereby stop the country from attacking ships that navigate the strait of Hormus.
Apparently also, the U.S has an ulterior motive of occupying the strait and put it under its control.
As this strategy of trying to occupy the strait also seems not to be working for the Americans, the U.S has resorted to hitting Iran's civilian infrastructure, including bridges, railways, water supply stations, Telecom stations, electricity grids, etcetera.
It seems, the U.S is doing this in a bid to inflict the pain of war on the ordinary citizens of the country.
Besides intentionally destroying Iran's economy, it seems like the motive now has turned to making the population weary of war thereby rise against the regime, which they may blame for their shattered lives.
Hopefully for the Americans, this could force the regime to capitulate to U.S demands in order to save itself from internal strife.
In retaliation against U.S strikes on its territory, Iran has brutally struck back by hitting U.S bases in the region, killing and injuring dozens of U.S service men.
In the 8th consecutive night of U.S strikes on Iran's coastal cities, the U.S Central Command declared that the U.S was attacking Iran in retaliation of its killing of U.S troops. Now the motive for U.S attacks on Iran here was to avenge the killing of U.S troops!
This zig-zag strategy of the U.S war against Iran has raised a number of big questions. That is: What exactly is the Trump administration trying to achieve in Iran? Where is the U.S-Iran war heading? Will the U.S really achieve its primary objectives of its military campaign against Iran?
If indeed the U.S is seeking to eliminate Iran's nuclear program, with all the time that the U.S is awarding the Iranians by continously diverting the course of the war away from nuclear issues, won't the Iranians use this time to finalize whatever business there may be with their nuclear program, then quickly race to the finish line of making the atomic bomb?
Truth be told, the Trump administration has completely lost the plot for the war with Iran.
Please subscribe to my blog for free here:
https://amwaldah.blogspot.com/?m=1
Comments
Post a Comment
Please comment