Alex

If you take a look at the full picture, some of your observations are valid. But the regime is teetering on the brink of financial collapse. Iran's oil-export revenue, previously worth approximately $45 billion annually, is being strangled. Oil accounts for roughly 40% of government revenue, and projections show that oil export income will fall to zero by mid-December. Iran's economy is projected to contract by 5.4% this year, with inflation approaching 70%. Roughly 80% of Iranians oppose the Islamic Republic. And flooding the streets with imported Iraqi death squads to pacify peaceful opposition, while leading the country over the cliff of cataclysmic economic disaster, is not doing wonders for its popularity. Iran's only effective weapon of retaliation is to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, its own most vital trade route. It is a desperate strategy that amounts to embargoing and laying siege to itself. The regime has played all its cards. Meanwhile, the US, for admirable humanitarian reasons, has refrained from inflicting maximal damage on the regime to avoid harm to the civilian population. But it retains the ability to escalate dramatically at any time, including through the destruction of essential infrastructure, roads, bridges and electrical grids. A cost assessment shows that the United States has incurred approximately $47 billion in military costs and 23 deaths, only 11 classified as resulting from hostile action. The projected cost of sustaining the operation is around $30 billion annually, less than half of one percent of federal spending, with no ground invasion or occupation. With US bases located within Iran's strike zone evacuated, casualties should be limited. Global oil production is adapting. Gulf ports, pipelines and alternative export routes are expanding, and Middle East exports have recovered to more than three-quarters of pre-war levels. Iran's ability to finance its network of foreign proxies is also coming under enormous pressure as its principal source of foreign currency disappears. For perspective: Iran has a roughly $300 billion economy and is losing access to an oil-export stream worth $45 billion a year. The United States has a $33 trillion economy and can sustain an ongoing military operation, with no boots on the ground, for approximately $30 billion annually. Who wins that war of attrition? Name me one military conflict in the history of modern warfare, between advanced combatants, that has been more successful. The only contenders are the Six-Day War and Desert Storm, and both involved either higher death tolls, higher expenditure, or both.