US President Donald Trump
Image: AFP
Charles Walldorf
Little has seemingly gone as Washington planned in the war against Iran.
The Iranian people have not risen up, one hard-line leader has been replaced by another, Iranian missiles and drones keep hitting targets across the Middle East, Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, driving oil and gas prices up worldwide, and in sharp contrast to Trump’s demand for “unconditional surrender,” Tehran has rejected a 15-point U.S. plan for a ceasefire.
So how did things go so wrong?
As a scholar who researches US forever wars, I believe the answer is simple: Trump, like other US presidents before him, has fallen into what I call the trap of asymmetric resolve. In short, this occurs when a stronger power with less determination to fight starts a military conflict with a far weaker state that has near boundless determination to prevail. Victory for the strong becomes tough, even close to impossible.
When it comes to Iran, the Islamic Republic wants – and needs – victory more than the United States. Unlike the U.S., the Iranian government’s very existence is on the line. And that gives Tehran many more incentives – and in many cases very effective countermeasures – through which to fight on.
Typically, in asymmetric wars the stronger side does not face the same potential for regime death as the weaker side. In short, it has less on the line. And this can lead to lesser resolve, making it hard to sustain the costs of war required to defeat the weaker, more determined rival.
Such dynamics have played out in conflicts dating back to at least the sixth century B.C., when a massive Persian army under Darius I was checked by a much smaller, determined Scythian military, leading in the end to a humiliating Persian retreat.
For the US in the modern era, wars of asymmetric resolve have likewise not been kind.
In the Vietnam War, an estimated 1.1 million North Vietnamese civilians and Viet Cong fighters died compared to 58,000 US troops. Yet, the US proved no match for the North’s resolve. After eight years of brutal war, the US gave up, cut a deal, withdrew and watched North Vietnam roll to victory over the South.
In 2001, the U.S. unseated the Taliban in Afghanistan, set up a new government and built a large Afghan army supported by U.S. firepower. Over the next 20 years, the remnants of the Taliban lost about 84,000 fighters compared to around 2,400 US troops, yet the US ultimately sued for peace, cut a deal and left. The Taliban immediately returned to power.
Many other great powers have fallen into this same trap – and at times in the same countries. Despite far fewer casualties than the Afghan resistance, the mighty Soviet Union suffered a humiliating defeat in its nine-year war in Afghanistan during the 1980s. The same happened to the French in Vietnam and Algeria after World War II.
US troops withdraw from Vietnam on March 29, 1973. The South fell shortly afterwards.
Image: History
A similar asymmetry is now playing out in Iran.
Unlike 2025’s 12-day war that largely targeted Iranian military installations, including its nuclear sites, Trump and the Israelis are now directly threatening the survival of the Iranian government. Killing the supreme leader, a slew of other powerful figures, and encouraging a popular uprising made this crystal clear.
Tehran is responding as it said it would were its survival to be at stake. Prior to the current war, Iran warned it would retaliate against Israel, Arab Gulf nations and US bases across the region, as well as largely close the Straight of Hormuz to commercial traffic.
In short, it is going all-in to cause as much pain as it can to the US and its interests.
Iran has suffered the disproportionate number of loses in the current war, both in terms of human casualties and depleted weaponry. As of mid-March, there have been upward of 5,000 Iranian military casualties and more than 1,500 Iranian civilian deaths, compared to 13 dead US service members.
Yet, Tehran isn’t backing down, saying on March 10, “We will determine when the war ends.”
Such Iranian resolve seemingly confounds Trump. Before the war, he wondered why Iran wouldn’t cave to his demands, and he has since conceded that regime change – seemingly a major US goal at the war’s onset – is now a “very big hurdle.”
This conflicts with how Iran was being presented to the American public prior to the war. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in January that “Iran is probably weaker than it’s ever been.” It has no ballistic missiles capable of hitting the US homeland, a decimated nuclear program and fewer allies than ever across the Middle East.
No wonder a Marist poll from March 6 found that 55% of Americans viewed Iran as a minor threat or no threat at all.
With Iran proving resilient, American public opinion on the war has been definitively negative. This aspect of war resolve can be especially challenging for democracies, where a disgruntled public can vote leaders out of power.
Fading or low US public support for war was likewise a primary driver in past US asymmetric quagmires.
Indeed, the Iran war is more unpopular than just about any other US war since World War II, with polling consistently finding around 60% of Americans in opposition.
For Iran, as a nondemocracy there are far less reliable figures to compare this to on its side. Before the war, the government faced a major public crisis with widespread protests, but for many reasons – including its brutal crackdown and a potential “rally around the flag” effect – Iranian public opinion has proved far less salient.
Chaos at Kabul airport as thousands scramble to leave after the Taliban takeover of the country in 2021 before the American forces had even withdrawn.
Image: File
The Trump administration is attempting to mitigate the impact that asymmetrical resolve has by saying the length and scope of the operation will remain limited.
To reassure the public and calm financial markets, Trump keeps promising a short war and delaying bigger strikes to give space for negotiations that he, not the Iranians, says are ongoing.
History suggests that once faced with a smaller military power showing greater resolve, the larger power has two trajectories. It can succumb to the hubris of power and escalate, such as was the case in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Or it can wind down the conflict in an attempt to save face.
Often in the past, leaders of a stronger side opt for the first option of escalation. They just can’t escape thinking that a little more force here or there wins the conflict. President Barack Obama wrongly thought a surge of 30,000 additional US troops into Afghanistan would bring the Taliban to their knees.
Despite signs that he wants out of the Iran war, Trump could still fall to the hubris of power. More US troops are on the way to the Gulf, and B-52 bombers have been flying over Iran for the first time.
As Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan show, following hubris into escalation against a determined foe like Iran will probably come at great cost to the US.
The other option – that of winding down the war – is still available to Trump.
And Trump has gone down this route before. He signed a deal in 2020 with the Taliban to end the war in Afghanistan rather than surge more troops in. And just last year, Trump declared victory and walked away from an air war in Yemen when he realized ground forces would be required to overcome the resolve of the Houthis.
The US president could try the same with Iran – saying the job is done then walking away, or entering real, sustained negotiations to end the war. Either way, he’ll need to give something up, such as unfettered access through Hormuz or sanctions relief.
Trump likely won’t like that. But polling suggests Americans will take it. After all, who wants another Vietnam?