Trump says he’s won the war. No-one has told the Iranians

April 28, 2026 — 5:00am

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US President Donald Trump’s war on Iran has entered contention for the title of the most aimless major war in modern history.

It’s too early to say whether the war has succeeded or failed. It’s still under way. This hasn’t constrained the US president, of course.

He declared victory less than two weeks into his “four to five weeks” war which, this week, enters its ninth week.

“We won,” he said on March 11. “In the first hour, it was over.” Winning “turned out to be easier than we thought”. There was “practically nothing left to target”.

Yet, after two months of war, Trump remains entangled while Iran treats him with contempt. Indeed, Trump’s administration can’t even organise a meeting with the enemy.

Iran’s negotiators flew out of the purported venue for peace talks, Islamabad, on the weekend as the US delegation was about to fly in. They would have encountered an empty meeting room.

Trump was left to cover his embarrassment by claiming, once again, that “we hold all the cards”. Yet he has no one to play cards with. This is a new nadir for American prestige.

It’s unwise to make premature pronouncements on victory and defeat. But we can make observations about the conduct of the war to date.

Reaching for a comparison in military history, strategist Mick Ryan, an Australian former major-general, compares America’s prosecution of the Iran war with Churchill’s Dardanelles campaign, the disastrous plan that delivered ANZAC carnage at Gallipoli. He begins with the caveat that all wars are different, then says: “Churchill had........

© The Age