🚨🇺🇸🇮🇷 America already tried squeezing a Middle East regime into giving up: it took 12 years in Iraq and ended in the invasion it was supposed to prevent
After 1991, Washington boxed in Saddam Hussein with sanctions, no-fly zones and a bombing raid whenever he tested the line.
He never folded, and by 2003 the US had decided the only way out was a full war.
Look at what’s left of the Iran war now that Trump calls it “effectively over.”
Warplanes are shooting the engines out of blockade runners, a new task force is hunting Iran’s land routes, and jets knock out a launcher on Qeshm every few days.
Trump’s own aides told Axios this approach needs months to show results.
Iran is already learning to live inside the box.
The Journal found the Guard has swapped warships for limpet mines and spotters on fishing boats, and Hormuz traffic has dropped to 45 percent of normal.
Saddam outlasted three presidents that way.
Trump has two years, a Congress that just flipped against him, and missile defenses at 39 percent.
He should cash in the pressure now for Qatar’s two-day deal, because containment has only ever worked as a bridge to an agreement.
Source: WSJ, Axios / Writer: Daniel