Iran – are the US and Israel looking for a way out?
JVL Introduction
Things are not going to plan in Iran; after all Iran had the audacity to retaliate to being bombarded and also had the audacity not to crumble and the audacity to attack US bases and economic interests in the region as well as to attack Israel. Now it seems that Trump might want a way out but Israel wants and perhaps, from its perspective “needs” to “finish the job”. Are they willing to back down without “total victory”?
Yet its pulverisation and near destruction of Gaza has not resulted in the end of Hamas and they had far less firepower than Iran. We know that air strikes have not led to a peaceful end of a regime the USA (and many others) do not like and, indeed, have resulted in more not less terrorism (consider the origins of Al Qaueeda and ISIS, for example).
This article is already two days old and may soon be out of date but we have to hope that Israel and the USA are looking for a way out and that they find one soon or there will be many months of horror to come. Even now surely the attacks will only have hardened attitudes and further depleted the standing of the USA who were in negotiations one day and bombing the next.
LL
This article was originally published by The Guardian on Wed 11 Mar 2026. Read the original here.
The US-Israeli strategy failed to defeat Iran quickly – now they are moving to plan B
It’s called the Dahiya doctrine – and the IDF and US air force are using it to destroy domestic support in Iran. The author, Paul Rogers, is emeritus professor of peace studies at Bradford University and author of Losing Control: International Security in the 21st Century
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The war on Iran is a joint enterprise by Israel and the USA; both countries can expect heavy retribution if Iran defeats them (as now seems likely).
Iran says its price for peace will be cast-iron, internationally-backed guarantees that neither of its enemies will take up arms against it again; their recognition of its full rights as a sovereign nation; reparations for all the damage done; and Israel ending its occupation of Gaza and the West Bank.
Trump and co would hate peace on those terms – but rich, geographically distant America would survive it. The Republican party – if not Trump – might think such a deal better for them than an ongoing disastrous war which risks keeping them out of power for decades
Would Netanyahu and Israel survive such a peace deal? Questionable. But carrying on the fight against Iran after America has walked away from it would risk turning Israel into the same kind of wasteland as Gaza now is and Israelis into refugees.