I'm Iranian-American. I hold both of those identities and I won't apologize for either one.
As an American, I want this country to be smart. Not just strong. Smart. And what I'm watching right now is the opposite of smart. It's the same playbook we've run decade after decade. Overwhelming force, premature victory laps and zero understanding of what the other side is actually doing.
As someone of Iranian descent, I know something most American analysts don't: The regime has been thinking about this war for 40 years. Not hoping for it. Preparing for it. Everything designed around: "What do we do when America comes?"
The answer was never "win a dogfight." The answer was: Death by a thousand cuts. Make the Strait impassable and make the missile defense systems run dry. Make the world economy scream. Make the Gulf countries question their choices.
And that's what we're seeing as our media is high fiving over destroying the Iranian Navy, a Navy that was laughable or Iran's fighter jets, which were so out of date that nobody ever thought Iran had a real air force.
I'm not rooting for Iran. I have family there who are terrified. I'm rooting for America to be honest with itself. I've watched us confuse blowing things up with winning my entire adult life. At some point, you have to ask, if we keep winning wars like this, why does nothing ever get better?
This isn't about being anti-war or anti-American. It's about being anti-stupid.