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Because there is no achievable win condition, and there never was. Starting this war was equivalent to losing it.
It really illustrates how a lot of historic decisions were essentially arbitrary. The powerful just do things all the time for no concrete reason. Almost nothing can truly affect them.
Some say this war was started to distract from the Epstein files issue.
Regardless of the likelihood of Trump reaching win conditions, I see no reason why the pentagon couldn't reach such win conditions.

We see both sides inflicting pseudo-creative attacks on the other, and the other side responding with mirror images. Basically whenever someone does something, first ask, can the same be done in reverse?

Iranian TV claims a $ 10M prize on Barron Trump's head:

https://www.iranintl.com/en/202608247954

What prevents pentagon from promising the same reward + exfiltration + safe haven for ~50 people (select family and friends)?

US has demonstrated exfiltration of pilot on Iranian territory. Can Iran demonstrate the same on US soil?

If pentagon is really wise, it wouldn't just promise this and leave the implicit insight of mirror threat up to the reader, it could provide an exit by demanding the same news channels to publicly and explicitly withdraw the reward promise, leaving implicit conclusions on bargaining power, when state television publicly eats its own words.

Regardless how anti-Trump or pro-diplomacy one may be, a state that permits its state television to initiate issuing mercenary bounties in public is simply not a candidate for diplomacy.

there's a lot of debate and little evidence that airpower alone normally produces a durable political outcome

or even a military one.

The logistics required to win intercontinental wars against a reasonably large and well-defended country are simply beyond human organisational capabilities and it's only getting harder as defence gets better and easier, and the world becomes more interconnected.

Israel have Monkey's Pawed themselves. They wanted Trump to win because they knew he would be malleable to start a war in Iran. But he's also Trump, which means every decision he makes comes with a big asterisk.

The logistics required to win intercontinental wars against a reasonably large and well-defended country are simply beyond human organisational capabilities

But the Trump admin was using AI, which has no cognitive biases, no 5 +/-2 working memory limit, and a very large short term memory. They should have the ability to do this.

Meanwhile whole warships of sailors are getting mentally wrecked. Heck of a job, Donnie.

If they had a cause to fight for, they'd probably have more resilience, but it's just a ship being swayed bu the back-and-forth of moronic decision-making.

Because the world is a more level playing field compared to a few decades ago. The US and the west don’t have the means or power to dictate terms all across the globe. They need to pick their battles wisely.