No matter the ultimate denouement of the war of aggression on Iran, the country has won the war morally, politically, and ethically. 

Primarily, by defeating the primary war aims of the United States and Israel, that is, ‘regime change’. This warrants elaboration. 

War is not about battlefield deaths, destruction of victuals, munitions, and so on. These are mere technical elements of war and war making. Essentially, though reductively, war is about sapping the will and morale of the adversary, who then capitulates. 

Has the American-Israeli war of aggression achieved this? 

Consider this: The legitimate government of Iran is standing. It may be materially somewhat weakened, but it stands and has ably performed all the functions of government, from running tap water to paying salaries on time and clearing war debris, and so on.

The primary war aim of regime change stands defeated. But that is only one prong, albeit a major one, of the saga. 

In the strategic and general calculus of those who initiated and enabled this war of aggression, it was held that Iran would fold and crumble the moment it was attacked. Grist to the mill for this assertion lay in the assumption that Iran’s government and power structure were riven with factionalism, and that there were rival claimants in Iran’s military and national security apparatus who would either defect or lay low during the war. 

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Above all, the major assumption was that disaffected Iranians would come out on........

© Kashmir Observer