IRAN-US War: Who Won and Who Gave In?

Pete Hegseth, the US Secretary of Defense—until recently a Fox News commentator—is boasting about what America did to Iran in the recent conflict.

The United States is more than 20 times larger than Iran in economic and military terms, and Iran is vastly poorer, with limited conventional military capabilities beyond its batteries of small and medium-range missiles. Yet this much weaker nation went toe-to-toe with the world’s most powerful military and forced it to the negotiating table on terms largely set by Tehran.

In politics and geopolitics, victory is not measured by the number of deaths or casualties, but by who achieves their objectives. When historians record the outcome of Nazi Germany versus the Soviet Union, they focus on who surrendered, not merely on lives lost. Similarly, when the United States sought to withdraw from Vietnam, it sent a senior military officer to negotiate the terms. The boastful American general reportedly told his Vietnamese counterpart, “Don’t forget—we defeated you in every battle.” The Vietnamese replied, “That may be true, but you are the one here asking to leave without suffering further losses.”

Iran may have suffered more damage, but it is the United States that ultimately gave in. That is what truly matters.