If a more than halfway industrialised country becomes involved in a serious war against an enemy who has even a sporting chance of fighting back, the best they can hope for is a Pyhrric victory. Even if Iran were to send an American invasion force back in plastic bags, they would have no realistic expectation of recouping the expenditure of men, machines and materials through spoils. That makes any large-scale conflict a strategic defeat, regardless of the tactical outcome.

Iran probably understands that. The Iran-Iraq war certainly provided an instructive and memorable example.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.