When countries go to war, they do so to achieve specific goals. These war aims can be material or moral, offensive or defensive, self-interested or altruistic, and, in the age of international law, legal or illegal. When superpowers like the U.S. threaten or declare wars, they may aim to deter belligerent rogue states, protect allies and clients against aggression, prevent countries from falling into another power’s sphere of influence, or force countries to change their form of government. Success in war is defined not by the number of enemy combatants you kill or the amount of damage you do but by whether or not you achieve those strategic objectives when the war is over.

So far, the war with Iran has not met any of President Donald Trump’s stated aims. It has not induced regime change, destroyed Iran’s nuclear and missile capabilities, shut down its regional network of proxy militias, or rendered it incapable of projecting power. With both the U.S. and Iran going into this weekend’s peace talks with maximalist negotiating positions, feeling like they have prevailed in the war and now have the upper hand, it’s unlikely the talks will deliver Trump’s goals, either.

These failures have come at tremendous cost. In five weeks, the U.S. has spent billions of dollars, stretched its armed forces thin, and exhausted an enormous amount of its munition stockpile. And those are just the direct costs: Economically, the war has disrupted global supply chains of critical resources, driving up the prices of essential consumer goods including food and fuel both in the U.S. and around the world. The war has put further strain on our alliances in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, while cementing the U.S.’s reputation as an erratic and unreliable actor on the world stage. And it has killed thousands of people, including 13 U.S. servicemembers, displaced millions of others, and wrought havoc and destruction in nearly a dozen countries.

For all this, the war has not only failed to achieve U.S. objectives, it has backfired, giving the Iranian regime power and leverage, over the Strait of Hormuz and the global energy market, that it did not have prior to this war. The tenuous cease-fire was supposed to “open” the strait, but Iran is retaining the right to search ships transiting through it and charge them a toll for safe passage. Far from hobbling Iran as a regional power, the war has instead made it a world power, since........

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