Subject: Re: The strategy,...is working
Sure, if the mullahs are still in charge.

If anyone hostile to the United States and Israel is in charge. Iran's long been governed by both the mullahs and the IGRC, with differing factions within those groups. It's hard to see how this conflict results in a more conciliatory regime coming out at the end.

Unless, of course, one is hoping for a popular uprising. But to borrow from the thread title, hope is not a strategy. The strategy of pursuing war against Iran almost entirely with air power is highly unlikely to yield that kind of regime change.

China's strategy in the Middle East is more than about oil. It's about enabling chaos and creating distractions/headaches/resource drains for the United States in every way that it can.

Hard to imagine a more chaotic and distracting/headache/resource drain for the United States than what's going on right now. And unless we get that popular uprising among the People of Iran, we're not going to be in much different a spot when we come out of this than going into it. So again, hard to see how the strategy is working, if we're doing to ourselves exactly what you think China was trying to do to us....10x over.