May 13, 2026 l Business Mirror
America outlined its goals in Iran as: crush its ability to erect a nuclear weapon; curtail Iran’s warlike allies in the region; effect regime change; destroy the Iranian military; disable the drone and missile programs; and, stop the “weaponization geography” of the Strait of Hormuz.
Did America actually meet these objectives enough to claim victory? Hardly.
America fears Iran will develop a nuclear warhead and join its allies and dominate the Middle East to the detriment of America’s surrogate brother in that region: Israel.
America-Israel’s “Operation Midnight Hammer” in 2025 and the recent “Epic Fury” may have damaged the physical infrastructure of the nuclear warheads manufacturing, but not the ability of Iran to revive this in two years. A news report revealed that deep fortified tunnels have shielded Iran’s nuclear facilities from total obliteration.
Iran may agree in principle not to develop nuclear weapons. But if its underground assets, technical know-how, and enriched uranium stockpiles are still in place, it is only a matter of time before Iran is back in the nuclear arms race.
What about the armies financed by Iran that are doing damage in the Middle East? The Hezbollah in Lebanon is still strong. The Houthis in Yemen are still a force to reckon with, especially in maritime disputes near the Red Sea.
These armies have been able to use drones and missiles on Israel and the other Gulf nations despite Washington’s propaganda that “Epic Fury” had decimated this capability.
President Donald Trump, aware that there are crucial midterm polls in the USA in November, probably pushed his luck in Iran, hoping for a quick victory that never happened. America thought that by wiping out the theocratic-political leaders, a power vacuum would occur and make Iran a headless chicken. Not so.
Because the Iranian bureaucracy is a multi-layered one, despite the wholesale assassination of leaders, Iran is still running effectively with current leaders. No real regime change happened.
While it is true that Iran offered no resistance to American air power, its military is still intact with 310,000 in the army, navy, and air force, plus 190,000 of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, or a total of 610,000. Iran can easily conscript fanatics of a million Iranians to bear arms if push comes to shove. Iran is not defenseless, personnel-wise.
Trump had boasted that Iran has no more Navy, yet it controls the sea traffic at the Gulf of Hormuz. Iran has made it dangerous and costly for ships to cross the Gulf.
Without a choice in the Gulf of Hormuz, America resorted to a blockade of Iran-related ships, which was supposed to choke off Iran’s exports, shipping gains, and port income.
Yet Iran has been able to ship out some of its oil by launching thousands of delivery trucks by land through friendly neighbor Syria, thus offsetting the imagined losses of Iran per day. It is for this reason that Iran can afford to tarry on agreeing on terms of settlement with America because it continues to endure and survive the military bombardment and economic strangulation of America.
In sum, America did not win its war against Iran even though it would proclaim such in so many words. Not only did it not win the war, but it has turned off the entire globe hit by inflation due to the oil and fertilizer shortage, angered most Americans (70 percent) with high prices, and driven away the nation’s allies that Trump criticized for not participating in his war.
***The views expressed herein are his own and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of his office as well as FINEX. For comments, email bingo8dejaresco@gmail.com. Photo is from Pinterest.