Washington has no clear plan for ending war with Iran – U.S. political scientist

This opinion was expressed in a comment to Ukrinform by political scientist Lincoln Mitchell of Columbia University.

“This Iranian regime has been, on the one hand, creating problems, threatening and killing Americans, supporting terrorism, and threatening Israel – which nobody cares about anymore in America – but it has also been brutal to its own people,” the expert noted.

According to Mitchell, the left side of the political spectrum may sometimes tend to ignore the fact that the regime was “absolutely brutal to its own people.” In particular, it has been reported that 30,000–35,000 protesters were killed this year alone, which he said “is about half the number of civilians killed in Gaza in the entire Gaza war.”

“I'm not shedding a tear to see the end of this regime, but it's not obvious that this is the end of this regime,” the political scientist emphasized, adding that “this regime has not been defeated.”

“So, on the one hand, these aren't good people – they do bad things – but that's not a way to really conduct foreign policy,” he said while assessing the U.S. military operation. “There’s no plan, no strategy, no discussion with allies, and no idea what's going to happen tomorrow or the day after.” Overall, he stressed, “there's no sense of how the war ends.”

In his opinion, there could be “many, many ways” for the campaign to end badly – from simply strengthening the regime, which could become even more brutal, to continued bombing and destroying not just military targets but also key civilian infrastructure. In the long run, this could lead to far greater civilian casualties. As a result, “disease can spread; impoverishment and immiseration can occur; a failed state can lead to terrorism.”

Another possibility, Mitchell noted, is that the United States could get stuck in another forever war. He also pointed out that the dismantling of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) deprived the U.S. of soft-power influence in the region.

“It's hard to see this going well. Look, good things can happen sometimes, and sometimes you get a few breaks, but I don't see that happening here,” the political scientist said. Meanwhile, he noted, Iran continues to attack many countries in the region, which was entirely predictable.

World War III is not necessarily inevitable, “but we should keep in mind that this is already a big regional war, and it could become a bigger one,” Mitchell added.

As reported by Ukrinform, on February 28 ,the United States and Israel carried out joint strikes on regime facilities in Iran. Afterward, Iran attacked U.S. bases in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Jordan.

Donald Trump suggested that the war with Iran could end soon.