What American Policymakers Don’t Understand About War in the Middle East

Assessment

The piece argues that American leaders fundamentally misread Iranian strategic calculus, treating it as responsive to threats when in fact Tehran's nuclear ambitions are structurally determined and immune to escalation pressure. The funeral scene for Khamenei underscores that even regime decapitation has not altered Iran's trajectory. The core question is whether Washington can shift from performative brinkmanship to a strategy that actually accounts for Iranian rationality.