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Posted on 07/14/2026 5:04:35 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
A stable peace appears elusive, some former officials say
President Trump’s new plan to wrest control of the Strait of Hormuz by resuming strikes and reimposing the blockade is his third major shift in military strategy as he searches for a way to turn the tables on Iran in the nearly five-month-old war.
Trump has tried air and missile attacks, a naval quarantine and now the calibrated use of firepower to try to coerce Tehran to agree to his terms, in addition to diplomatic inducements.
But Iran has exploited its proximity to a major oil export route to defy Washington and joust for influence across the Middle East.
A stable peace appears elusive, some former officials say, as each side is calculating that it can win the long game in a test of wills that may haunt the rest of Trump’s presidency, including through the midterm elections in November.
“We are now locked in a coercive war of attrition. Both sides are trying to push the other past some unknowable pain threshold,” said Kenneth Pollack, the vice president of the Middle East Institute and a former CIA analyst. “Coercive wars can go on and on.”
As the fighting continues, the course of the war will be shaped by Iran’s attempts to reconstitute its missile force and air defenses and by the U.S. ability to continue to strike targets, making the most of its declining weapons inventories.
“We are in another phase of the war,” said Vali Nasr, professor at Johns Hopkins University and a scholar on Iran. “This is really a fight over leverage. It is not a fight over the regime.”
“Ultimately the U.S. cannot get Iran to give up its nuclear program or accept the American terms for ending the war as long as...”
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
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Taking out power plants and bridges sounds more like a war on that population, who mainly live in cities, than a war on the actual enemy, who mainly live in hundreds of subterranean bases scattered througout the 350,000 square miles of Iran's mountainous region.
How in heaven’s name is the US going to get Iran to give up its nuclear program or accept American terms for ending the war as long as the Iranians are holding tight onto the Strait of Hormuz?
The Strait of Hormuz is not considered “international waters” in the traditional sense; instead, it is entirely made up of the overlapping territorial waters of Iran and Oman.
Because the strait is a vital global chokepoint, it is governed under the international legal principle of “transit passage”. This grants all ships the right of continuous and expeditious navigation, meaning coastal states cannot legally suspend passage or impede commercial traffic.
However, the exact level of regulatory control—and the right to charge fees or inspect vessels—remains a highly contested issue between the US and Iran, and differing views on “maritime law.”
By maintaining control of this strategic maritime chokepoint, Iran retains the vital leverage needed to protect its interests and force negotiations on its own terms.
The US and the UK were the ones that started the war against Iran in 1953 with Operation Ajax which overthrew the legitimate government of Iran and installed the CIA puppet Shah Pahvali. All the blowback we’re getting today can be traced back to these prior violent and illegal actions by the US against Iran. In the case of Operation Ajax, it wasn’t even about “national security” -we were pathetically sending our troops to die to do the bidding of British Petroleum whose interests were threatened by Iranian desire to nationalize their own oil assets.
Well how far do you wanna go back Antioch?
Rot in hell traitor!
It was a good paper at one time.....before Rupert Murdoch bought it.
📌
The Wall Street Urinal. 🙄
Seems like pacifying Iran is a moving target
Undefined enemy hard to ascertain
Maybe they were ready for all this who knows
I have no clue what it takes to destroy or neutralize the revolutionary guard
I’d assume leadership is rather fluid
And the WSJ clutches he/her collective pearls…again!
An Iran with A-bombs and control over oil supply will be a lot more dangerous.
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