What can end the Iran war? |
AS the Israel-US war on Iran was entering its second week, President Donald Trump demanded an “unconditional surrender” by the Persian Gulf Islamic Republic. But within hours, President Masoud Pezeshkian of the beleaguered nation retorted: they will take their dreams of Iranian people surrendering unconditionally to their grave. So what can influence the course of this war, including its end?
Apart from claims by the Israel-US coalition of decimating Iran’s nuclear facilities and missile production and launch capabilities, besides decapitating its leadership and destroying its command and control systems, and equally defiant statements by Iran about its own military might, evidence is in short supply about how the war is going.
Given how Iran is being carpet-bombed and how missiles are slamming into various parts of the country, it is not difficult to say that the Israel-US coalition controls the skies over most of the country, with the latter’s air/missile defences knocked out. But, at the same time, Iran continues to launch both drones and missiles at targets in the apartheid state itself and at US military facilities across the Gulf. The decapitation seems to have left intact and functioning Iran’s 12 autonomous military-aerospace commands.
In terms of assessment, American analysts are split into two camps. The first group says that the war is not going America’s way and that one major indication of this is the number of direct hits that US assets, most notably THAAD and Patriot radars and batteries, have taken, exposing........