Trump has laid bare the limits of superpowerdom

Iran has been a much much tougher nut to crack than Iraq.The fact that Donald Trump has called off his latest planned mass aistrikes on Iran's power plants and bridges is not a sign of strength on his part but a confession of weakness. He can't defeat Iran or bring its rulers to their knees. The Tehran regime is sinply not going to back down from its absolute red line which is that in future and for eternity the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is going to control the Strait of Hormuz, with or without sharing financial proceeds with Oman across the other side of the chokepoint. Trump said he stopped the strikes because Saudi Arabia and Qatar and Iran asked him to, in return for an imminent, almost-ready settlement deal. Whether Iran put in a call, we don't know. Iran denies it. And Iran has also denied that talks with the US are to renew this afternoon. In fact, the only talks going on have been between Iran and Oman, sorting out who gets what re the Strait of Hormuz to keep it open by way of charging every ship a fee for safe passage. So, there is no imminent deal to end the war. In fact, Iranian rulers, according to reports, have indicated to Trump that if he launches further strikes, they will just respond with widespread missile hits on energy plants across the Gulf region. In other words, Iran has called Trump's bluff. This mighty superpower has been found wanting. It's running out of missiles, both offensive and defensive ones, abd even if there was an inexaustible supply, which there isn't, the US would still not be able to defeat Iran which is a huge country run by people who enjoy war. This is a moment of true disaster for the US and for the US military. China will be grinning all the way to its arms factories.