With the details of the signed Memorandum of Understanding still unclear, it does appear, for all intents and purposes, that the United States has lost the war with Iran. That means Pete Hegseth, the first Secretary of War, has lost a war.
As if the US couldn’t look more foolish, the MoU gives the US nothing it wanted when it comes to the military objectives it was pursuing in Iran.
The only big “accomplishment” is that Iran will reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but not “toll-free” as US President Donald Trump claimed. But the vital waterway was open before the US and Israel’s joint strikes on Iran on February 28th that started the war.
The Center for Economic Policy and Research wrote that Trump and Hegseth took the US into a war that it was unable to win, and the fact that the ruling class didn’t see it was astounding. Thousands of people have died in Iran, and many more were killed in Lebanon, where the war is continuing. Not only that, the war pushed the cost of fuel to unbearable heights as Americans are already grappling with inflation that has pushed grocery prices higher than ever.
The cost of this war to the US was a whopping $25 billion and resulted in significant U.S. munitions depletion. So that the Strait of Hormuz could be reopened, which, again, was already open before the war. So what did the US gain? It looks like nothing.
Iran has already declared victory, with most on both sides agreeing that the US is on the losing side.
Iran Declares Memorandum of Understanding A “Record of US Failure”
Because of his own failures, Hegseth berated North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies for failing to provide US military forces access to bases on the continent to launch attacks on Iran. Hegseth called the action of NATO countries “shameful.”
“These allies, they put America’s sons and daughters, our sons and daughters, at risk by denying them the predictable access, basing and overflight that never should have been in question at all,” Hegseth, the infamous Christian Nationalist and misogynist, said.