As the US naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz continues, and a US ground invasion of Iran seems imminent, Iran has now responded by striking US-allied countries in the region. Will Trump continue this profoundly unpopular war that is upending the global economy? Will it spiral out of control? Brian Becker is joined by Professor Mohammad Marandi, an expert on American studies who teaches at the University of Tehran. Join the The Socialist Program community at http://www.patreon.com/thesocialistprogram to get exclusive content and help keep this show on the air.
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“Ground invasion” is much less likely to me, or at least it won’t be a ground invasion occupation like what people think when you say “ground invasion”. It will be a raid, and like most raids it will be mostly pointless rather than breaking things and leaving behind a wasteland. It will have troops on the ground but it won’t necessarily be about seizing territory which is where this differs in an alarming way from most recent instances of US military adventurism.
It is going to be ugly and I don’t know why the entire international community seems convinced ground war = seizing and holding territory. Yes only ground war can seize and hold territory but that is unfortunately not the only thing it can do.
The only way Iran can extract the cost most people assume it can extract from the US military is if we assume the objective of a strike force entering Iran with ground elements will necessarily have the objective and quagmire of seizing and holding territory while providing “security”/patrol against guerilla forces… maybe Trump will do that but this isn’t the given people confidently assume it is.