Can the US-Israeli war against Iran end in victory? An analyst weighs in

The current Gulf war does not appear headed toward either a decisive victory or a settlement based on the idea that neither side has won, according to Jordanian politician and former minister Samir Habashneh.

In an analysis cited by Republika from Al Jazeera, Habashneh said wars historically tend to end in one of two ways. One side wins decisively, prompting the other to surrender and accept the victor’s terms. Or both sides become exhausted without achieving a clear victory, then stop fighting through an agreement that accommodates each side’s interests.

The eight-year Iran-Iraq war illustrates the second pattern, he said. Iraq failed to retake Arabistan, while Iran failed to overthrow Iraq’s Baath Party government. Neither side achieved its main objective.

Habashneh argued that modern US wars reveal another problem. “America has indeed lost its wars, but it has not learned from those experiences and then starts a new war,” he said. He also pointed to the Vietnam War, in which the United States lost more than 60,000 military personnel.

The article presents his assessment as a question about how the conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran might end, without identifying a clear victor or a settled outcome.

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America has indeed lost its wars, but it has not learned from those experiences and then starts a new war.