Image Source: Tactical Report
World – Dr Oscar van Heerden, an international relations expert, believes United States President Donald Trump is running out of ideas as fighting between Washington and Tehran resumes after months of relative calm.
He said the renewed clashes near the Strait of Hormuz, including US strikes on Iranian military assets and Iranian retaliation against American positions in Jordan and the UAE, reflect a negotiating strategy built from a position of weakness rather than strength.
Van Heerden argued that six months of military engagement failed to achieve Washington’s objectives, forcing Trump into talks with a weaker hand while trying to project pressure on Iran through renewed strikes.
“You know when you are negotiating with a foe, with your counterpart, you try and go into those negotiations from a position of strength. Now we know that following six months of engagements and war with Iran, America and Israel are not in a position of strength. Their plans did not work out,” van Heerden said.
Domestic Strain
Mounting strain within the United States itself is also shaping the crisis, with economic pressure ahead of the midterm elections compounding turmoil within the military leadership, where several senior officers have resigned or been dismissed over the past year.
Van Heerden said this domestic instability is influencing how far Washington is willing to escalate the conflict, even as officials publicly signal a tougher stance toward Tehran.
“There’s a real crisis in the United States on multiple fronts. There’s a crisis with the economy, high inflation and all of that, especially in going towards the midterm elections in November, less than 60 days away. This is looming large on Trump’s mind,” van Heerden said.
Human and Financial Toll
The financial and human cost of the conflict is also mounting, with Iran’s asymmetric tactics, including using low-cost drones to draw costly American interceptor responses, inflicting damage far beyond what Washington anticipated. Van Heerden said the scale of the losses, in both lives and resources, marks one of the most significant setbacks for US military strategy in the region in recent memory.
“Iran has devastated the United States. The damage from a financial point of view, besides the loss of life, is incalculable, incalculable. You know, the Iranians are shooting dummy drones that don’t even have any explosives. They’re shooting dummy drones to these places, and then America spends between 4 and 8 million dollars to try and shoot down these dummy drones,” van Heerden said.
