Iran’s Bombardment, Critical Thinking And The World Order

By Mobolaji Sanusi

“We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.” — Albert Einstein(1879-1955).

President Donald Trump presides over not only the most powerful country in the world but exerts, like his predecessors, considerable influence across the globe. Assumption of such powerful status by America stems from an accumulation of tested military prowess, verifiable scientific and technological advancement, and institutional capacity, amongst others. The United Nations as it stands today is beneath the feet of the United States, and Trump, a bold but sometimes brash leader, haughtily underscored this when without the UN’s consent, embarked on a scornful war against Iran on February 28, 2026, alongside his Israeli ally, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Both leaders did so with unbridled triumphalism.

It was a war, based on Trump’s erroneous estimation, that was deemed a foregone conclusion — something that a superpower of America’s immeasurable military might should end in at most six weeks. But the war is currently in its fourth month, and not many are in doubt that Trump and allies are yet to fulfil their strategic objectives of embarking upon this thoughtless war with Iran. Notwithstanding the ongoing 60-day pause due to the agreement reached in Switzerland, he may never fully achieve this until 2029 when he’s expected to leave office.

Nonetheless, his ill-conceived war has gone too far in reducing the myths around America’s renowned global military dominance, dented the pride of Americans, and has actually reshaped Middle East thinking in ways detrimental to United States interests.

So far, every ounce of progress accruing from the war to the United States has been hit by devastating reversals, thereby impugning seriously on the pride of the world’s most powerful country. The war, now in its 15th week, has been without Trump realising his designed objectives that he claimed led to his bombardment of Iran. What are Trump’s objectives?

Some of these objectives are deludingly provocative. Trump, upon Netanyahu’s spurring, plans to annihilate Iran’s nuclear programme, notwithstanding the 2015 nuclear agreement that he unilaterally walked away from. With this objective, he wants to dismantle Iran’s ballistic missile programme that both the United States and Israel view as a threat to their facilities in the Gulf region and the host countries. Yet, under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) negotiated with former President Barack Obama in 2015, Iran allowed the IAEA, which is the UN’s nuclear watchdog, to physically inspect its nuclear programme even though Israel never allowed such inspections to its own nuclear arsenals while America looks the other way. To achieve the goal of attacking Iran, Trump pulled the United States out of the deal in 2018. By 2026, the United States, under his leadership, had reportedly struck over 13,000 targets in Iran during the ongoing war, but there’s nothing to show that Iran’s ballistic missiles had been significantly decimated. Rather, intelligence reports have suggested that Iran still retains 70 percent of its ballistic missile stockpile and 70 percent of its mobile launchers. Iran has also reportedly exemplified an adroit use of drones with which it sustains its capability to sadly harass and harm Gulf nations hosting United States’ military bases or those sympathetic to American and Israeli interests. Iran, though a despotic country, with its scientific orientation, finds drones cheaper and easier to produce.

Trump plans to exterminate Iran’s Navy, and this aspect remains an area where he seems to have recorded an appreciable success but at the detriment of the global economy. Most Iranian conventional naval vessels, including “drone” carriers, guided-missile boats, and warships, were either sunk or destroyed. Despite this, Iran has been able to stand up to the United States through improvisation, which has helped it retain its naval presence in the Persian Gulf. In spite of not having a formal Navy because of United States onslaughts, Iran cannot be denied the credit of sustaining a naval power that rendered Trump’s success in this domain a mere hollow one, especially in the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump also plans to subdue Iran’s regional proxy network and with this, like Iran’s nuclear programme, no meaningful progress has been recorded since most of the militias, including the dangerous Hezbollah, seem to be benefiting from the war. Hezbollah’s reprisal missile attack on Israel sometime in March sent a reminder to regional leaders of their unyielding relevance. Also, Iraqi Shia militias have also exchanged fire with the United States and regional countries without suffering grievous damage.

Trump’s desire to overthrow Iran’s Islamic Republic by killing its top officials, including Ali Khamenei, Iran’s murdered Supreme Leader, yielded no lasting results. Surprisingly, Iran’s new leadership under Mojtaba, Khamenei’s son and successor, has made the republic, its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and other allies more hardened.

In terms of objectives’ realisation, the war is far from being a success, and more expository is the sad reality that America’s munitions and equipment that were avoidably expended and lost during the war, including air defence systems and interceptors to KC-135 refueling jets and Tomahawk missiles, are not things that can be easily replaced. Yet, President Donald Trump’s $1.5 trillion defence budget request for the current 2027 fiscal year, has been reportedly described by the Pentagon as America’s largest year-over-year jump in defence spending since World War II.

An expose from an analysis published sometime ago by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Pentagon has reportedly used at least 45% of its stockpile of Precision Strike Missiles; 50% of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) interceptors inventory; and almost half of its stockpile of Patriot ballistic interceptor missiles—all within the first seven weeks of war with Iran. The report also revealed that it would take over four years to remake those precision ballistic interceptor missiles. The war in Iran is now in its fifteenth week and it is quite certain that America’s stockpiles of munitions would have been considerably depleted.

In addition to loss and misuse of the foregoing crucial military hardwares in Iran by President Trump, dozens of American service men and women have lost their lives. Other service men/women numbering over 400 also sustained various degrees of injuries. The family lives of an additional 10,000 U.S. soldiers, sailors, and airmen deployed to the Middle East have been disrupted — at a huge cost to taxpayers in America.

Currently in the Middle East, the number of civilians killed in Iran, the Gulf, Lebanon, and Israel has reportedly risen to over 4,000 people and this sadly includes over 150 Iranian schoolgirls who were killed in a single United States strike. The ecological consequences, including environmental degradation, heightened water scarcity, and intensified health impacts of the war, will take a long time to get over.

Iran’s resilience in strongly holding its access to the Strait of Hormuz, through which not less than 20 percent of the world’s oil and natural gas is shipped in pre-war times, remains the clincher that altered the power dynamics in the war. With its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, global economic activities became overwhelmed. From being perceived as endangered, the Iranian government has overnight become a regional heavyweight that the United States’ partners in the Middle East must henceforth reckon with, whether or not they like to. No thanks to the Trump administration’s careless handling of the war. He had spent billions to prosecute this needless war and will now spend multiple billions of dollars to reconstruct Iran. He left the round table to perpetuate ruins in Iran but is back at the round table in Pakistan and Switzerland in search of peace that he once spurned.

Through America’s machinations, Iran remains one of the most sanctioned countries in the world and with the purported lifting of sanctions, consequent upon the Switzerland’s 60-day peace deal, relief is bound to return to that country. This deal is bound, if only within the agreed period, to free for uninhibited export, Iran’s estimated 67 million barrels of oil that is at the moment stored on boats and tankers in the Gulf. Also, the seized Iranian assets that are now released by the United States can serve the interests of Iranians. America is now negotiating from a position of weakness and its bid to dictate how Iran spends its unfrozen money holds no water.

Mr Esmaeil Baghaei, spokesperson of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, recently reacted to this when he said that the assets “will be released and will be employed with absolute liberty by Iran in order to purchase whatever goods or commodities needed by the nation.” Therefore, Trump should perish the thought of compelling Iran to patronise harvest from the farmlands of American farmers. He should concentrate his remaining energy on how to ensure that the American and global economy is not distorted again by another closure of the Strait of Hormuz, if Iran is further provoked.

The war’s ding-dong affair may continue during this 60-day warfare ceasefire, except the United States can effectively whip Israel and Netanyahu into line. The greatest threat to peace at the moment in the Gulf region is Netanyahu, who is Trump’s ally. The America/Israel coalition is fighting a futile war where they have deployed their military prowess to destroy Iranians whose leadership’s Islamic religious belief teaches them that death in the course of fighting any perceived ‘evil’ such as the type that they see in America/Israel makes any believer amongst them a martyr of such ‘worthy cause’ that guarantees them a reserved place in aljannah. They are not afraid of death or destruction: Herein lies the dilemma of Trump, in particular.

With America’s pride and national security interests now badly battered; and with no substantial military or political mileage accruing from the tactless war against Iran, the billions of dollars expended have gone down the drain, and Americans may be compelled to react negatively against the Republicans in the upcoming November 2026 mid-term elections.

The Iran cum Gulf region problems cannot be resolved “with the same level of thinking that created them” — apologies to Albert Einstein. This is one of the lessons this needless war should have taught President Trump. What a good development that the United States Senate, midweek, had belatedly invoked its war powers to force President Trump to halt his misguided military campaign against Iran or compulsorily seek Congressional approval before he can take any further action. This long-awaited institutional check on misuse of presidential powers deserves global applause. For now, yours sincerely keeps his fingers crossed as further events unfold from that part of the world. For certainty, leaders of powerful countries like Trump need to know that the world order needs peace at all times, not avoidable wars.

•Sanusi, former MD/CEO of Lagos State Signage & Advertisement Agency, is currently managing partner at AMS RELIABLE SOLICITORS. (WhatsApp Only – 07011117777).