IMHO one mistake Trump made is in letting others add to the criteria of defining a win against Iran. Initially it was to harm Iran militarily and financially and make it nearly impossible to build nukes for a while. Then he let the naysayers add to that the strait has to have traffic flowing through it more freely than before (was it really open before?).
As soon as the Dims and Chicoms, but I repeat myself, started yelling, "But the Strait!", Trump should have said repeatedly that it's not America's problem. He said that once or twice, but then took on more than he can chew by claiming that he'll get the strait open (thus seeming to accept the premise that an American war aim is to open the strait and not doing so constitutes a failure).
“Initially it was to harm Iran militarily and financially and make it nearly impossible to build nukes for a while.”
Since he claimed that Iran’s nuclear capabilities had been obliterated a year ago, it would be hard to make that claim again without on-the-ground verification.
And we’re not going to get it.
I’m on your side here, but I would like to offer a different take.
After deposing Nicholas Maduro the Iranian people took to the streets for US support in getting rid of the Ayatollah.
We didn’t like Iran having nukes but while we knew they were building weapons we didn’t believe they were close enough to have accomplished it. Frankly, North Korea is closer.
We performed our (night I add perfectly executed) strikes to take out the regime. That should have been it and this is where our CIA leadership needs to be fired : Iran responded in a way that no one thought they would.
Bears repeating:
They attacked ally nations in response.
They lined up civilians on bridges and buildings and ensured the international press were present. (A war crime.)
Sitting down shipping through the strait was NOT military decided by either side. The insurance companies refused to insure any shipment. By default this is why shipping doesn’t happen in that region now. It has nothing to do with was. It’s financial risk.
While people are arguing over “who is shutting down the strait” President Trump has been repeating to a wall: “The strait is open!”. He is correct.
The only evil entity that has shut down the strait are the international maritime insurers. I’m willing to bet they are reporting certain ships to rogue forces in Oman and Iran so they can purposely be sunk to drive up costs.
The chances that the shipping disaster in the Gulf has anything to do with Iran or US efforts is less likely than financial incentives.