Will Trump Finish the Job in Iran?

Will Trump Finish the Job in Iran? | UANI Senior Advisor Ray Takeyh and Reuel Marc Gerecht in the Wall Street Journal: The military campaign against Iran is probably weeks from achieving what was initially envisioned. The Pentagon’s proposed calendar might match neither Mr. Trump’s temperament—which at times seems guided by volatile financial markets—nor Iranian ingenuity in hiding and husbanding the country’s remaining assets. Nonetheless, the degradation of the Islamic Republic as a military and nuclear power has been enormous and is likely irreversible. It will take years, perhaps decades, for the clerical regime—if it survives—to rebuild. . . . What seems accepted wisdom in Washington—that Iran wins in a longer war—is surely militarily untrue. A war of attrition could destroy the Islamic Republic. But does Mr. Trump have the will to carry on and deploy the means needed? It would require U.S.-protected convoys to unblock the Strait of Hormuz. . . . [O]nce the U.S. Navy opens the strait, assuming the White House can absorb the economic and political fallout—meaning market turmoil and the possibility of U.S. ships’ getting hit—the Islamic Republic will be militarily and economically bankrupt.