Damge wrought by Iranian missilesin Tel Aviv
Bamo Nouri and Inderjeet Parmar – The Independent March 25, 2026
The language of power often reveals more than it intends. In a rare moment of candour on March 7, the US president, Donald Trump, described the confrontation with Iran as “a big chess game at a very high level … I’m dealing with very smart players … high-level intellect. High, very high-IQ people.”
If Iran is, by Trump’s own admission, a “high-level” opponent, then the sudden revival of a 15-point plan previously rejected by Iran a year ago suggests a disconnect between how the adversary is understood and how it is being approached. It’s a plan already examined in negotiation by Iran and dismissed as unrealistic and coercive. Despite this, the Trump administration is once again framing the “roadmap” as a pathway to de-escalation. Tehran has once again dismissed the gambit as Washington “negotiating with itself” – reinforcing the perception that the US is attempting to impose terms rather than negotiate them.
The US president is right about one thing – Iran is not an opponent that can be easily dismissed or overwhelmed. Trump’s own description is a tacit acknowledgement that this is a far more capable and complex adversary than those the US has faced in past Middle Eastern wars, such as Iraq. And that is why the odds are increasingly stacked against the United States and Israel.
This conflict reflects a familiar but flawed imperial assumption: that overwhelming military force can compensate for strategic misunderstanding. The US and Israel appear to have misjudged not only Iran’s capabilities, but the political, economic and historical terrain on which this war is being fought.
Unlike Iraq, Iran is a deeply embedded and adaptable regional power. It has resilient institutions, networks of influence, and the capacity to impose asymmetric costs across multiple theatres. It knows how to manage maximum pressure.
Joe Kent. Click to enlarge
The most immediate problem is lack of legitimacy. This war has authorisation from neither the United Nations or, in the case of America, the US Congress. Further, US intelligence assessments indicate Iran was not rebuilding its nuclear programme following earlier strikes – contradicting one of Washington’s justifications for war. The resignation of Joe Kent as head of the National Counterterrorism Center on March 17 was even more revealing. In his resignation letter, Kent insisted that Iran posed no imminent threat.
This effectively collapses one of the original narratives underpinning the US decision to start the war – a further blow to legitimacy.
A majority of Americans oppose the war, reflecting deep fatigue after Iraq and Afghanistan – hardly ideal conditions for what increasingly looks like another “forever war” in the Middle East. Current polling shows Trump’s Republicans trailing the Democrats ahead of the all-important midterm elections in November.
The war is both militarily uncertain and politically unsustainable. International allied support is also eroding. The United Kingdom — often trumpeted as Washington’s closest partner — has limited itself to defensive coordination, while Germany and France have distanced themselves from offensive operations. European allies also declined a US request to deploy naval forces to secure the strait of Hormuz. This reflects not just disagreement, but a deeper loss of trust in US leadership and strategic judgement.
US influence has long depended on legitimacy as much as force. That reservoir is now rapidly draining. Global confidence is falling, while images of civilian casualties — including over 160 schoolchildren killed in an airstrike on the first day of the war – have shocked international onlookers. Rather than reinforcing leadership, this war is accelerating its erosion.
Israel faces a parallel crisis of legitimacy – one that began in Gaza and has now deepened. The war in Gaza severely damaged its global standing, with sustained civilian casualties and humanitarian devastation drawing unprecedented criticism, even among traditional allies. This confrontation with Iran compounds that decline.
Striking Iran during active negotiations — for the second time — reinforces the perception that escalation is preferred over diplomacy.
Strategic failure, narrative defeat
The conduct of the war compounds the problem. The assassinations of Iranian leaders, framed as tactical victories, are strategic failures. They have unified rather than destabilised Iran. Mass pro-regime demonstrations illustrate how external aggression can consolidate internal legitimacy.
The issue is no longer just the conduct of the war, but the credibility of the conflict itself. Regardless of how impressive the US and Israeli military are, it doesn’t compensate for reputational collapse. When building support for a conflict like this – domestically and internationally – legitimacy is a strategic asset. Once eroded across multiple conflicts, it is extraordinarily difficult to rebuild.
Rather than stabilising the system, US actions are fragmenting it. Allies are distancing themselves, adversaries are adapting, and neutral states are hedging.
The most decisive factor may be economic. The war is already destabilising global markets – driving up oil prices, inflation, and volatility at levels that combine the effects of 1970s and Ukraine war oil shocks.
This is a war that cannot be contained geographically nor economically. The deployment of 2,500 US marines to the Middle East (and reports that up to another 3,000 paratroopers will also be sent), reportedly with plans to secure Kharg Island – and with it Iran’s most important oil infrastructure – would be a dangerous escalation.
For Gulf states, the assumption that the US can guarantee security is increasingly questioned. Some states are reportedly now looking to diversify their partnerships and turning toward China and Russia, mirroring post-Iraq shifts, when US failure opened space for alternative powers.
Iran holds the cards
Wars are not won by destroying capabilities alone, but by securing sustainable and legitimate political outcomes. On both counts, the US and Israel are falling short.
Iran, by contrast, does not need military victory. It only needs to endure, impose costs, and outlast its adversaries. This is the logic of asymmetric conflict: the weaker power wins by not losing, while the stronger one loses when the costs of continuing become unsustainable.
This dynamic is already visible. Having escalated rapidly, Trump now appears to be searching for an off-ramp — reviving proposals and signalling openness to negotiation. But he is doing so from a position of diminishing leverage. In contrast, Iran’s ability to threaten energy flows, absorb pressure, and shape the tempo of escalation means it increasingly holds key strategic cards. The longer the war continues, the more that balance tilts.
About the authors
Bamo Nouri is an Honorary Research Fellow, Department of International Politics at City St George’s, University of London.
Inderjeet Parmar is a Professor in International Politics at City St George’s, University of London.
Bombs dropped from aeroplanes are all the US and Israel have. The numbers of them bombs have to be exceedingly low today.
A lot of oil and gas is in Iran’s sphere of influence in Iran’s backyard. Control of the Persian Gulf is what Iran is fighting over.
Getting the Gulf Arab States to abandon them US bases in the Gulf would likely bring peace to the region, and at the same time the US might be able to put a leash on Israel. Perhaps Iranian missiles will keep that dog at bay.
The quote from Trump proves that he and the rest of the American ruling class are no more than sociopaths. Hence, the people of the West people are revealed to have become increasingly indifferent, selfish, amoral and sociopathic. The West lets the amoral US do its bidding. The people were content to see the US take over the Ukraine and provoke a war with Russia, using it as a pawn in a global chess game, killing well over a million people and displacing millions more – essentially carving up the place with Russia likely for its 2024 withdrawal from Syria.
This is the kind of truth people do not want to hear. It is why there is no real “off ramp” to the new war with Iran. Most of the people want to turn a blind eye to it and the actual causes. They could care less how many people are murdered and displaced, and they only crow when millions of their victims are dumped in their borders. They refuse even to ask if it is being done to serve Israel and its land clearance operations.
The US negotiators looking for an “off-ramp” to the war they planned and started with Israel, their partner in stealth, are lying. On the world stage, they have to appear that they to want to stop the war and be fair, but they will use any excuse to keep it going. They are willfully blind to any “up-ramp” of higher values regarding basic human rights & freedoms, and the sovereignty rights of nations, as that would make all of their nation destabilizations, insurgencies and wars illegal. There people know this only too well and that is why there is no honesty, decency and trust to be found in any of their dealings. The people are generally devoid of any higher values to make the murder of the unwanted forbidden, or against any genocide, atrocity or war as long as they think it will serve their own interests, and they can “win” in some way. It is that mentality which Trump and his henchmen appeal to.
The moral high ground of protecting the basic human rights and freedoms of everyone does not even register in the minds of the war mongers or in any of those in the Western ruling class. That ground was advanced only in the West despite all of the crimes against humanity in our long and bloody history, and it will not arise in any other civilization to the East. It served to stave off and temper many evils which come with power. Now it is gone, and the West will reap the whirlwind, for what goes around comes around.
The the US, the major nations of the West in supporting Israel are supporting the most heinous form of apricide and persecution the world has seen in modern times. The people like the amoral and woke PM of Canada are content to go along to get along with the Jewish money power, and allow Israel to wipe out the goyim in the Middle and in Iran, as long as it will serve their interests. That is the height of their values system. The people can no longer distinguish between decency and indecency, between integrity and corruption, between honor and dishonor, between right and wrong, or between good and evil, and that is exactly the way the ruling class wants them to be. Like themselves, they want the people to be totally amoral, fragmented, and sociopathic, making everything they touch through their control of our major institutions into reflections of their own dead and animal-brain souls.
The people are willing victims to all of the brainwashing and mind control going on. Their only excuse is that it is simply too hard, and too uncomfortable to break away from the norms of the mainstream, and to fight to see that our nations and lives are run on high moral footings in which nations would intervein in places Israel to end all of their crimes against humanity, and to end all of our unjust and insane wars. So now the whirlwind from all of these evils will come upon us with extreme prejudice.
An absolutely correct requirement by Iran is that the perpetrators of this unprovoked belic assault pay REPARATIONS.
How nice would it be that those bullies be forced to pay reparations, after all, they demanded reparations from Germany after the world war.
This limited time ”war” is nothing but a cash grab just like the renamed common cold a few years ago
26 March https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZuJfJMY-r4 ‘Iran just shot down a $270 million E-3 Sentry AWACS over the Persian Gulf/ killing all 17 crew aboard. The aircraft that tracked 600 targets simultaneously across 250 miles is gone.
Iran spent $15 million on the missile—a 15-to-1 cost advantage. America now operates without persistent surveillance coverage. Remaining AWACS pulled back 250+ miles, creating detection gaps Iranian drones are already exploiting. Replacement timeline: 18 months minimum. This isn’t about one aircraft. This is about the collapse of American information dominance.’ / by Money Matters
comment/ “Well done description with clarity 👌”/ “USA won’t confirm this, this is real. From the start.. The US hides the truth & the H resident keeps on lying.” :
27 March https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu07_3riqXc Iran War: The Shocking Number of American Soldiers K****d so far./ MahmoodOD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N00cdHinea4
27 March https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0Nwt_Xcqok Tel Aviv Exploding As Iran’s ‘Secret’ Missile Pounds Major City! / ballistic missile carrying a 100kg warhead slammed into a hotel in Herzliya on March twenty-seventh/ with no interception/ no warning siren that arrived in time
Multiple apartment blocks in northern Tel Aviv were gutted in the same wave of attacks, with glass and debris littering dense residential streets/ broken windows stretching for blocks in every direction.
Iran has now fired six separate missile salvos at israhell in a single day.” < Not exactly what drumpf what is still allowed to trumpet around/ the 25th …forget it / that will never work in the aipac bought & paid for US Congress (both sides of the isle) / a Miltary Coup alone will do…
18 March https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxtFGZOPhks USA soldiers coming home in coffins for 🇮🇱
comments/"Sacrificed himself for a person* that calls him a loser. Sad"/" Imagine the amount of people who have been killed in Their Own Homes And Countries because of the USA"/"They killed 200+ children and hit school. Let that sink in"/"Sorry, but I don’t feel sorry for them one bit. They decimate elementary schools and we’re supposed to cry for Them?"
"Truly heartbreaking were the girls who went to school & never came back. My heart goes out to the parents who had to bury minors. Being a soldier is a calculated risk. Being school kids is not.Talk about that "/ Every soldier in an offensive war is 100% guilty — being killed, because killing & slaughtering children isn’t bravery."/"Your soldiers are sent to kill, destroy and maim. These are criminals coming back home while the other gangsters continue doing the same thing." /"… Im sure the casualties/fatalities are far greater than whats being reported."
24 March https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ihhZVjA2sPA Mohammad Marandi puts Piers Morgan in the corner….comment; " The last sentence is mighty: "We will not allow your Epstein regime to kill our kids & get away with it!"
* person: kkk rigger of the 2024 election / illegitimate WH resident crypto fake j. diablo pedo numero uno drumpfffff….high time he goes Jenseits to the hell of rotschild & chabad sewer rebbe schneerson from whence he came..´
Anyway every body anywhere
h,a.n.d. have a nice day
CIA O
@ Fred B/ “the people of the West people are revealed to have become increasingly indifferent/ selfish/ amoral & sociopathic. The West lets the amoral US do its bidding…etc.”/ nail on the head……
One of the reasons: the msm addiction? Or they are being cooked by 5 G + the already in action 6 G which blocks them for thinking for themselves* …? So they flee to/ remain glued to the yearly routine of the bread & circus show fabricated by tptsnb the powers that shoud not be…..?
11 February https://www.bitchute.com/video/g5oNLLHUsxAG EntertheStars: A Million Times drumpf diablo pedo numero uno Appears in Unredacted Files! / Pinned by @EntertheStars 2 hours ago via Kim Osboel: Tell Kim Iversen I sent you there & ask her to look into how Epst. went to drumpf tower a few weeks after he won the election 2016!
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1391184356022837 Kim Iversen with Sayer Ji author/ health policy commentator
* (“man” / in Dutch “mens”/ in German “mensch” is derived from “manas” in Sanskrit which roughly means “mind” or thinking ability….)
Anyway every body anywhere 😎
h.a.n.d. have a nice day
CIA O