Will America Cut and Run?

Donald Trump has once again stepped back from a threatened major attack on Iran. So has America lost the Iran War? Or is Trump’s apparent hesitation part of a longer strategy to exhaust the Iranian regime?

Aimen and Thomas discuss:

• Whether Iran has outmanoeuvred Trump despite America’s overwhelming military superiority

• Aimen’s three possible futures for the war: US withdrawal, prolonged attrition or extreme escalation

• Why an American retreat could unleash an even more destructive regional war

• Israel, the Gulf states and Pakistan in a Middle East without American restraint

• The revival of the US–Iran MoU and President Pezeshkian’s lack of authority over the IRGC

• America’s possible ‘death by a thousand cuts’ strategy against Iran’s military and economy

• Iran’s collapsing currency, soaring inflation and ability to withstand prolonged pressure

• Trump’s highly personal style of government and the absence of a stable American war strategy

• The limits of air power and America’s repeated failure to convert destruction into political victory

• The danger of nuclear escalation if Iran races towards a bomb or misreads Trump’s restraint as weakness

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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

Produced and edited by Thomas Small.

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