Thekabarnews.com—The New York Times, a well-known publication, presented numbers that made me frown. The US military completely destroyed 15 sites in the Middle East. The personnel abandoned these sites due to their untenable conditions. What?

Yes, that is what the news says. In military terms, it is labeled “infrastructure damage” if we believe that account. However, from a humanitarian perspective, it represents a mental breakdown that no diplomatic medication can remedy. The psychological trauma inflicted on civilians often lasts far longer than the physical destruction of infrastructure.

We frequently contemplate war in terms of numbers. For instance, we tally the number of missiles fired, the number of leaders killed, or the number of barrels of oil stopped.

But if we can put our egos aside for a moment and look at the facts, we will discover a sad truth. This truth is particularly relevant for those who claim to be the world’s police.

The US and Israel made a long list of things they wanted to do: destroy Iran’s military, get rid of the 1979 regime, and stop its nuclear development.

Time passed swiftly. A month has passed, and the list remains unchanged, with no items marked off. Iran has turned the Middle East into a testing ground for their weapons, not the other way around.

If you say you’re winning, you wouldn’t ask your enemy for a ceasefire, even if they’re “dying.” But the contrary is happening.

While Washington and Tel Aviv are preoccupied with peace proposals, Tehran remains unyielding at the summit of Mount Damavand. Do you know where this mountain is?

It is amusing that every time Israel kills a high-ranking Iranian leader, they act like the conflict is over (post festum). However, they forget, or maybe they want to forget, that in Iran, leadership is not about people. Instead, it is about a strong system run by Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.

It did not stop 4,000 ballistic missiles from hitting American installations every three hours, even though they killed 30% of the top leaders. Therefore, it is clear that it is about the mental qualities that Western intellect overlooked. It is not strategy anymore.

Furthermore, the Strait of Hormuz. The Revolutionary Guard Corps still has a strong hold on the world’s lifeblood. The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, which is usually compelling, now has to stay far away. This is because Iranian sea mines and drones are no longer just a bluff. Instead, they are a real menace right in front of us.

But the hardest blow is not the destruction of the military station or the failure to remove 60 percent of the uranium from the mountain’s base. Rather, the blow comes from the “failure of the narrative.”

The US and Israel want the people of Iran to rise up against their government and welcome foreign forces as liberators. This is a standard CIA plan that typically succeeds.

But this time, the people of Iran were firmly behind their administration. People in Tehran laugh about Mossad’s “regime change” plan at the dinner table.

Iran’s economy, on the other hand, was supposed to fall apart, but it is still able to send two million barrels of oil to China every day. Moreover, they keep trading even when bombs are going off. US allies in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan can only watch in terror. They know that Uncle Sam’s protective umbrella has holes everywhere.

When a superpower gives up, it is not always the worst thing that could happen to them. Occasionally, the worst thing is failing to resolve a conflict, which leads to prolonged suffering and regional destabilization.

The United States and Israel are having a very challenging time right now. They cannot win, but their arrogance prevents them from admitting defeat.

They keep saying they are winning by killing important people. Yet on the ground, their most advanced fighter jets, like the F-35, are starting to fall one by one to new Iranian missiles.

It looks like the US and Israel are winning the war on TV and social media. However, Iran is winning the war on land and sea.

This is the most silent “strategic defeat” in contemporary history. It is a loss in which the winner does not need the world’s approval. They only need to show that oil keeps flowing. Nuclear power is safe, and the sirens in Tel Aviv keep going off all the time.

We should stop believing in the fairy tale of “invincible might” and start learning that in the new Middle East, prayers at the foot of the mountain are stronger than military budgets worth billions of dollars.

That is how it is. Not every party ends with the host getting cheers of victory. Occasionally, they wind up with bills that the people who ordered them can’t pay.

Written by Pepih Nugraha.

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