An asymmetrical war

SPEAKING at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre in Washington, D.C., in early 2012, Henry Kissinger asserted that, since World War II, the US had entered wars without a clear exit strategy, and often sought a way out shortly after engagement. He highlighted the Afghan conflict as an example of a prolonged and unwinnable war. At that time, the US, despite being the world’s greatest military power, was bogged down in a conflict that had entered its second decade. It took another decade for this war to conclude, resulting in utter humiliation for America, which had faced similar challenges in Vietnam and Iraq. America’s longest war in Afghanistan was triggered by a desire for revenge for 9/11. Its military intervention in Iraq, meanwhile, was initiated under false pretenses regarding the possession by Iraq of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). From the outset, both conflicts proved unwinnable, yet deception masked the failures. For nearly two decades, American leaders misled the public about the disastrous outcomes of these wars. Now, just five years after its disgraceful withdrawal from Afghanistan, the US is embroiled in another conflict with Iran, seemingly ignoring past lessons. Similar to the misleading WMD claims used to justify the Iraq invasion, the exaggerated narrative of Iran’s nuclear weapons programme was invoked to launch an attack on the Islamic Republic. However, weeks of relentless bombing failed to weaken Iran’s resolve, and the fragile ceasefire negotiated by President Donald Trump has reached a critical point. America’s continued blockade of Iran’s ports, along with the recent escalation in tensions, has brought both nations perilously close to yet another round of hostilities. Trump has once again threatened to “erase Iran from the face of the world”. Nevertheless, he is far from winning this asymmetrical conflict. As German Chancellor Friedrich Merz noted with reference to the US: “An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership