Trump suddenly seems anxious to end the war as American casualties mount and Iran finds ways to hit back
It was Mike Tyson who famously said, "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."
In terms of sheer firepower, the greatest military machine in human history has totally overwhelmed Iran and is decimating the country.
But the Iranians are finding ways to fight back, as American officials acknowledge, and those who envisioned a cakewalk are finding a rockier road.
EXILED IRANIAN WARNS REGIME WAS 'AGGRESSIVELY PATIENT THREAT WAITING TO POUNCE' ON AMERICA
The Trump administration’s disclosure that 140 U.S. service members were wounded in the initial attack that killed Ayatollah Ali Khameini and other top leaders highlights the ability of even an overwhelmed enemy to inflict pain.
As President Donald Trump sends decidedly mixed messages about the duration of the war, the question hovers in the air: What amounts to winning?
There are some, including Republicans, who want Trump to declare victory and get out. He can boast that he disrupted the terror state’s latest attempt to develop a nuclear weapon.
Yesterday, in fact, the president told Axios that the war will end "soon" because there is "practically nothing left to target … Little this and that … Any time I want it to end, it will end."
Trump’s explanation: "We have done more damage than we thought possible."
Just days ago, the president said the military campaign against Tehran would take four to six weeks.
More important than the timing, Trump had insisted that Iran must undergo regime change. He proclaimed that he had to approve the country’s next leader. Well, with the Iranians anointing the ayatollah’s son, who Trump had specifically deemed unacceptable, that obviously didn’t happen.
The almost seamless quality of the U.S. kidnapping of Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro and takeover of that country’s oil may have given the Trump team a sense of overconfidence when it comes to Iran, which has 90 million people.
There’s no mistaking the fact that Trump, allied with Israel, has made other dire threats against an Iranian regime that has bedeviled a succession of American presidents since the 1979 hostage crisis.
"If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz," he posted, "they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far."
But that’s exactly what the Iranians are doing, with reports that they are booby-trapping the strait, a major chokepoint for world oil shipments, with land mines.
Among other things, according to officials and experts cited by the New York Times, militias backed by Iran have attacked hotels utilized by American troops.
There was a series of drones launched at an affluent hotel in the Iraqi city of Erbil.
An Iran expert at Johns Hopkins University told the paper that the Iranians learned from the initial U.S. attack last June that the Pentagon is lacking certain missiles and defensive weapons that can intercept drones.
Another Times story, assessing the first 12 days, concluded that Trump and his advisers "misjudged how Iran would respond to a conflict that Tehran sees as an existential threat."
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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, however, told reporters that "I can’t say that we anticipated necessarily that’s exactly how they would react, but we knew it was a possibility. I think it was a demonstration of the desperation of the regime."
Beyond weaponry, the war launched by Trump has had a more predictable financial impact, creating economic uncertainty around the world.
Americans have been hit with soaring gas prices and shrinking retirement plans. The market volatility and oil prices have bounced around, but this has clearly fueled feelings of anxiety.
What’s more, unemployment has ticked up and tens of thousands of jobs have been lost, which predates the war but also may be linked to the Supreme Court ruling rejecting Trump’s tariffs.
America has punched Iran in the mouth. But the theocratic dictatorship can declare a victory of sorts simply by surviving.
Trump, for his part, can boost his party’s uphill chances in the midterms by bringing this war to an early conclusion.
That would also end a different war, the acrimonious debate within his MAGA coalition between those who defend the assault on Iran and those who believe he betrayed his base by abandoning his America First pledge to stay out of foreign wars.