If regime change isn’t the goal, then why fight Iran again?

If the objective is not regime change, why should the U.S. or Israel fight another war against Iran? That is the question the Trump administration has yet to answer.

Military strikes, ceasefires, negotiations, renewed attacks, and another pause have become a recurring cycle that plays directly into the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ strategy. Every lull allows Tehran to rearm, rebuild, replenish its missile stockpiles, and adapt. Washington appears trapped in a cycle of escalation and de-escalation without defining what victory actually looks like.

That is America’s first and most consequential strategic mistake.

The administration has never adequately explained to the American people why confronting Iran advances U.S. national security, what victory means, or why the costs are justified. Americans deserve more than reports of successful military operations; they deserve a strategy. Without it, they understandably question higher energy prices, greater regional instability, and the risk of another prolonged Middle East conflict.

Washington’s second mistake has been assuming that transactional bargaining alone can succeed against an ideologically driven revolutionary Islamist regime.

Iran’s leadership is not simply pursuing traditional geopolitical interests. The Islamic Republic believes it is carrying out a divinely inspired revolutionary mission. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seeks to drive the U.S. from the Middle East, eliminate Israel and dominate its Sunni Arab neighbors. Negotiating with such a regime requires understanding revolutionary ideology, religious conviction, and the strategic patience that has defined Tehran’s behavior for nearly five decades.

Despite these realities, the United States has achieved remarkable military success. Iran’s economy is reeling and nearing........

© The Hill