Six months into Iran war, Trump has no path to victory — SkimNews
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- The US-Israeli war on Iran has killed 18 American service members, wounded more than 750, and cost taxpayers at least $37.5 billion over six months — costs Trump dismissed last week as "small potatoes."
- Iran has suffered far heavier losses — at least 3,468 killed and more than 26,500 injured by June 10, per Iran's Ministry of Health — yet has damaged 15 US military sites including barracks, hangars, fuel depots, and air-defense systems with retaliatory strikes.
- Iranian strikes have hit civilian targets including an elementary school in Minab in February and a wedding gathering in southern Iran in September, with the Iranian Red Crescent reporting more than 125,000 civilian units damaged, including roughly 100,000 homes.
- The Trump administration is requesting a $1.5 trillion defense budget, while the House has passed a $1.15 trillion FY2027 NDAA and experts told IPJ that congressional resistance could deny Trump an NDAA for the first time in the law's 65-year history.
- Iranian officials have signaled willingness to return to the June memorandum of understanding if Washington recommits, keeping a diplomatic off-ramp open even as Tehran continues to retaliate and interfere with traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
- Harrison Mann, a former US Army officer and intelligence official, told the International Policy Journal that the Pentagon overestimated its ability to subdue Iran's military and could not locate or destroy the majority of its drones, missiles, or air defenses.
Why it matters: With 18 US service members dead, $37.5 billion spent, and Iran still fighting after six months, the administration's escalation-only strategy has produced stalemate rather than victory — and congressional resistance over the NDAA could turn the war's funding into a midterm-election flashpoint. Iran, meanwhile, has explicitly left a diplomatic path on the table via the June memorandum of understanding that Washington is refusing to take.
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