Iranian Brilliance
How much can the US take?
Iran, even under various western sanctions for decades they remain the Darth Vader of the middle east. Before the Ukraine war, everyone used to think the Russian military was making more with less. What everyone really missed was Iran ‘min-maxing’ the little they had. Russia, a military powerhouse actually went to Iran to buy drones for their war and not the other way around.
In August 2021, the United States left Afghanistan, the native force they left behind quickly folded. Before the US could get all their troops and citizens out of the country, the Taliban was already in control. Every smart person that was paying attention understood what happened, Americans lost their appetite for middle east conflicts.
Death By 1000 Cuts
In 2011 the US withdrew from Iraq but sent back a small force to help the Iraqi Government fight against ISIS. A handful of troops were also sent to Syria for the same reason. These were not massive deployments, US had been gradually reducing their forces and by 2022 had significantly reduced it’s presence in the middle east. They don’t really have a personal need for the oil themselves and the American people are tired of war. Not that the people ever understood these wars in the first place but that’s no fault of their own.