The Trump administration is making a new bid to prove a core assumption the Iran war so far suggests is flawed: that punishing strikes from a far superior US military force will force Tehran to capitulate.
President Donald Trump ordered new attacks on multiple Iranian targets on Wednesday, hours after accusing the Islamic Republic of “tapping us along” and not making a deal. “They keep playing us for suckers,” he said.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth explained that Washington was “clearly signaling” to Iran’s leaders and hoped to “enhance” its diplomatic position. “If we need to negotiate with bombs, we will negotiate with bombs,” he said.
The full extent of the target list and damage from the new air strikes was not immediately clear. US Central Command said in a statement that American forces fired precision munitions at Iranian military surveillance capabilities, communication systems and air defense assets.
Analysts will assess in coming days whether the attacks, some in southern Iran and apparently meant to loosen Tehran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz, will narrow Iran’s options and shift its negotiating stance.
Sometimes in warfare, adjustments in strategy and strikes that reach a critical mass can change outcomes. But the risk is that this new offensive may simply prolong a pattern that has confounded Trump. While US forces repeatedly chalk up tactical wins, military options are yet to secure an overall strategic triumph.
Evidence of the last three months suggests that Washington only instills greater stubbornness among Iran’s leaders when it intensifies military pressure and reinforces a belief in Tehran that Trump can’t be trusted on any eventual deal.
No lasting agreement can be achieved through threats, intimidation or the use of force,” Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations Amir Saeid Iravani said Wednesday, according to Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).
If the new round of attacks doesn’t work, there’s sure to be a renewed focus on Trump’s return to coercion. One answer is his lifelong stance that each showdown has only a winner and a loser. His instinct that bringing down the hammer may force Iran to fold, meanwhile, is right out of the real estate magnate’s playbook — even if such an approach is yet to yield big wins for his diplomacy.
The president’s aggression infuses his administration’s worldview. “You can see when someone’s trying to tap, tap, tap on a deal,” Hegseth said. “Instead they’re going to have tap, tap, tap, bombs dropping on key facilities in Iran from the United States of America.
But if the new air strikes don’t force Tehran to concede, Trump will again be asked why he’s so wedded to an approach that keeps failing.