All conflicts led by the West since the “war on terrorism” described in the aftermath of September 11 have resulted in either a deadlock or a defeat. Tactical successes on the battlefield have never translated into lasting strategic results in terms of security and stability – neither for the United States nor for the region concerned.
If the coalition led by the Americans in Iraq in 2003 quickly overthrew the dictator Saddam Hussein, it then became bogged down and lost a war against various violent non-state actors. These groups are, by their very nature, organized to endure and persevere, outside the binary concepts of victory and defeat prevalent in the West.
Twenty years have passed, and here are the United States of 2026 once again embroiled in a war in the Middle East that they neither master nor understand. The American president, Donald Trump, found himself caught up in this strategic disaster by an Israeli Prime Minister who exploits ongoing crises and organized chaos. Straddling the line between magical thinking and neoconservative interventionist dogmatism, the strategists of Tel Aviv and Washington are beginning to realize that they have, in fact, engaged in a war against a militia.
