Iran war revealed limits of American military power

The gap between America's military capability and its strategic achievements has never been clearer. The Iran war has revealed a crisis of deterrence and eroding U.S. influence.

News ID: ۳۸۶۴۵۸

سه‌شنبه - ۳۰ شهريور ۲۰۲۶ / 2026 30 June

The forty-day war against Iran, regardless of the differing narratives about its battlefield outcomes, presented analysts of international relations with one crucial reality: the deep gap between America’s tactical capability and its power to attain strategic objectives. While Washington attempted to portray its military operation as a display of authority and a restoration of deterrence, many assessments published in Western media and think tanks indicate that this operation failed to lead to the political goals the United States had expected.

In this regard, the news outlet Defense One has attempted to explain one of the most significant structural weaknesses of U.S. foreign policy using the term “strategic blindness”—a weakness that causes short-term military successes to be regarded as final victory, while the long-term political and geopolitical consequences follow a different course entirely.

The Difference Between Tactical Victory and Strategic Success

In the lexicon of military science, a military operation is merely a tool for achieving political objectives. From the perspective of theorists such as Clausewitz, war is the continuation of politics by other means, and the value of any military operation is measured not by the extent of destruction, but by the degree to which it contributes to the realization of political goals.

However, one of the chronic problems of U.S. foreign policy over the past two decades has been the substitution of operational indicators for strategic criteria. The number of sorties deployed, the volume of bombing, the number of targets destroyed, or the elimination of enemy commanders are all indicators that can demonstrate the success of an operation, but none, on its own, signifies success in a war.

The experiences of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya demonstrated this same reality: the United States repeatedly proved its military superiority on the battlefield but failed to translate this superiority into a stable political order or the consolidation of strategic influence.

The Forty-Day War and the Revelation of the Strategic Gap

The recent war followed the same pattern. The United States and the Zionist regime sought to alter the regional equation in their favor and weaken Iran’s deterrence by inflicting heavy military blows. However, the course of events demonstrated that the region’s political equations are not necessarily dictated by battlefield results.

By the war’s end, not only did Iran remain one of the principal actors in the region’s security equations, but many of Washington’s initial calculations also went unrealized. The regional power structure did not fundamentally change, the Axis of Resistance was not eliminated from the equation, and the security environment of West Asia did not achieve the stability that the United States had anticipated.

On the contrary, new crises emerged, the management costs of which fell squarely on the United States’ shoulders.

The Increase in U.S. Costs

One of the most significant consequences of this war was the increase in Washington’s multidimensional costs. In the military domain, the United States was compelled to maintain a substantial portion of its logistical capacity, defense systems, warships, and equipment in the region, a matter that imposes additional strain on the country’s defense budget.

In the economic sphere, any tension in West Asia translates to higher insurance and maritime transport costs, disruptions in the energy supply chain, and increased pressure on the global economy, costs a significant portion of which directly affect the United States and its allies.

In the diplomatic arena, Washington was forced to expend a large part of its political capacity managing the consequences of a crisis it had itself played a role in creating.

The Curtailment of U.S. Freedom of Action

Another important outcome of the war was the reduction of U.S. freedom of action in the region. The wider the scope of tensions grew, the more constraints Washington faced in its decision-making. Concerns about the expansion of the war, the vulnerability of U.S. military bases, threats to energy routes, domestic public pressure, and the apprehension of regional partners all rendered America’s decision-making options more limited than before. In effect, the more military power was introduced into the field, the higher the cost of using it became—l, a matter that, in the view of many analysts, counts as one of the signs of the erosion of U.S. hegemonic power.

The Schism in the Western Alliance

Defense One also emphasizes another significant consequence: the deepening rift between the United States and its allies. In many instances, Washington’s decisions were made without full consensus with European partners or regional countries. This led some U.S. allies to see themselves as exposed to the security consequences of a war in which they had played no decisive role in initiating. Heightened concerns among European countries regarding energy security, the possibility of war expanding, and the economic costs arising from the crisis were one example of these very differences. In the long term, this trend could erode allies’ trust in U.S. leadership, for the greater the cost of following Washington’s policies, the more the incentive for partners to align will diminish.

The Crisis of Deterrence

Another of the United States’ principal aims was to restore the credibility of its deterrence; however, the war’s outcome raised new questions about this very concept.

Deterrence does not depend solely on firepower but is tied to the ability to alter the adversary’s behavior. If, after a military operation, the opposing actor’s behavior does not change or if its will to resist is even strengthened, one cannot speak of the success of deterrence.

For this reason, many analysts believe that the recent war, more than strengthening U.S. deterrence, laid bare the limits of this power.

Strategic Blindness: The Chronic Ailment of U.S. Foreign Policy

The term “strategic blindness” does not merely denote an intelligence error but refers to an inability to grasp the long-term consequences of decisions.

When a great power defines success solely by quantitative military indicators, it may win on the battlefield but lose in the political arena. The examples of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and now the forty-day war against Iran show that the United States continues to face this same problem: an excessive focus on the military instrument and insufficient attention to the political, social, and geopolitical consequences of its actions.

Conclusion

The forty-day war once again revealed this reality: that military superiority does not necessarily translate into strategic superiority. A military operation is considered successful when it can achieve defined political objectives, preserve alliances, reduce future costs, and increase the freedom of action of decision-makers. If the criterion for evaluating a war is merely the number of attacks, the extent of destruction, or the volume of fire, one might speak of temporary successes; but when strategic indicators such as changes in the balance of power, the consolidation of a favorable order, the preservation of international standing, cost reduction, and the strengthening of alliances come into focus, a different picture emerges.

From this perspective, the term “strategic blindness” is not the description of a momentary error but a reflection of a recurring pattern in U.S. foreign policy—a pattern in which operational advantages once again failed to translate into lasting political and strategic gains.