I have spoken with current and former U.S. officials privy to the decision making (none was authorized to speak to the public), who describe a total lack of planning and contradictory aims among those worried about the war effort and those more concerned about the war’s domestic political implications. By wreaking havoc on its Gulf neighbors and threatening the transit of 20 million barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran aims to spike global energy prices and soil the domestic political climate in the United States. Only hours into the conflict, an errant strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school in southern Iran served as a gut-wrenching reminder of the cost of such illusions, and a testament to the grim truth that those who pay most dearly for the fog of war are almost always the innocent.
Author: Karim Sadjadpour
Published at: 2026-03-04 23:50:07
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