From: andy.cain <andy.cain@comcast.net> Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2026 5:08 AM Subject: Fwd: What does victory in Iran actually look like? A British Para's point of view. Sent from my Galaxy -------- Original message -------- ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Andrew Fox from Fox On War <mrandrewfox@substack.com <mailto:mrandrewfox@substack.com> > Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2026 at 08:04 Subject: What does victory in Iran actually look like? <https://eotrx.substackcdn.com/open?token=eyJtIjoiPDIwMjYwMzEwMDgwNDQ1LjMuOWUxYTRlNzc2ODU5MTI0YkBtZzEuc3Vic3RhY2suY29tPiIsInUiOjI0MDI2Mzk4OCwiciI6ImFsYmllbWZveEBnbWFpbC5jb20iLCJkIjoibWcxLnN1YnN0YWNrLmNvbSIsInAiOjE5MDQ4MTg4NSwidCI6Im5ld3NsZXR0ZXIiLCJhIjoiZXZlcnlvbmUiLCJzIjoyNjYxNTU0LCJjIjoicG9zdCIsImYiOmZhbHNlLCJwb3NpdGlvbiI6InRvcCIsImlhdCI6MTc3MzEyOTg5NCwiZXhwIjoxNzc1NzIxODk0LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMCIsInN1YiI6ImVvIn0.zs2K21vVNiBtYKBNw4-MH3ll5cys-abW2nwI6YRUKBs> Trump says the war is already “won in many ways,” but Israel, Washington, and the Iranian people all mean something very different when they talk about victory. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ Forwarded this email? Subscribe here <https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9tcmFuZHJld2ZveC5zdWJzdGFjay5jb20vc3Vic2NyaWJlP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPWVtYWlsLXN1YnNjcmliZSZyPTN6MW92byZuZXh0PWh0dHBzJTNBJTJGJTJGbXJhbmRyZXdmb3guc3Vic3RhY2suY29tJTJGcCUyRndoYXQtZG9lcy12aWN0b3J5LWluLWlyYW4tYWN0dWFsbHkiLCJwIjoxOTA0ODE4ODUsInMiOjI2NjE1NTQsImYiOmZhbHNlLCJ1IjoyNDAyNjM5ODgsImlhdCI6MTc3MzEyOTg5NCwiZXhwIjoyMDg4NzA1ODk0LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMCIsInN1YiI6ImxpbmstcmVkaXJlY3QifQ.KEY9KMjxtaYI37MViWwH39ma9jhEzM0EjtuhnDJHrvI?> for more You’re a paid subscriber — thank you. Today’s post is free for everyone (so you can share it widely), but your subscription is what funds the work that makes Fox On War different. _____ <https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=2661554&post_id=190481885&utm_source=post-email-title&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=3z1ovo&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoyNDAyNjM5ODgsInBvc3RfaWQiOjE5MDQ4MTg4NSwiaWF0IjoxNzczMTI5ODk0LCJleHAiOjE3NzU3MjE4OTQsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0yNjYxNTU0Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.2ETr-g2wSkZtj9t4CeXfpzz2Q3DvtIgfM1rT0xCv9zE> What does victory in Iran actually look like? Trump says the war is already “won in many ways,” but Israel, Washington, and the Iranian people all mean something very different when they talk about victory. <https://substack.com/@mrandrewfox> Andrew Fox Mar 10 <https://substack.com/@mrandrewfox> <https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=2661554&post_id=190481885&utm_source=substack&isFreemail=false&submitLike=true&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoyNDAyNjM5ODgsInBvc3RfaWQiOjE5MDQ4MTg4NSwicmVhY3Rpb24iOiLinaQiLCJpYXQiOjE3NzMxMjk4OTQsImV4cCI6MTc3NTcyMTg5NCwiaXNzIjoicHViLTI2NjE1NTQiLCJzdWIiOiJyZWFjdGlvbiJ9.gEoRL0H5uoRjraFXK1vNh1Nz7jzfDXo7imOjN3x2zYM&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-reaction&r=3z1ovo> <https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=2661554&post_id=190481885&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&isFreemail=false&comments=true&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoyNDAyNjM5ODgsInBvc3RfaWQiOjE5MDQ4MTg4NSwiaWF0IjoxNzczMTI5ODk0LCJleHAiOjE3NzU3MjE4OTQsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0yNjYxNTU0Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.2ETr-g2wSkZtj9t4CeXfpzz2Q3DvtIgfM1rT0xCv9zE&r=3z1ovo&utm_campaign=email-half-magic-comments&action=post-comment&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email> <https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=2661554&post_id=190481885&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&utm_campaign=email-share&action=share&triggerShare=true&isFreemail=false&r=3z1ovo&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoyNDAyNjM5ODgsInBvc3RfaWQiOjE5MDQ4MTg4NSwiaWF0IjoxNzczMTI5ODk0LCJleHAiOjE3NzU3MjE4OTQsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0yNjYxNTU0Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.2ETr-g2wSkZtj9t4CeXfpzz2Q3DvtIgfM1rT0xCv9zE> <https://open.substack.com/pub/mrandrewfox/p/what-does-victory-in-iran-actually?utm_source=email&redirect=app-store&utm_campaign=email-read-in-app> <https://open.substack.com/pub/mrandrewfox/p/what-does-victory-in-iran-actually?utm_source=email&redirect=app-store&utm_campaign=email-read-in-app> READ IN APP This run of updates remains free to everyone. 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In one setting, he said it was “very complete, pretty much.” Hours later in Florida, he said America had “already won in many ways” but “not won enough,” and promised “ultimate victory.” That contradiction exposes the core problem with the entire conversation. “Victory” in Iran has no single meaning. Every participant in this conflict is using the word to describe a different desired outcome. The first thing to recognise is that success in this war depends entirely on your perspective. Israeli victory, American victory, regime victory (obviously), and victory for the Iranian people are not the same. They might not even be compatible. Israel states its war aim is to decisively remove an existential threat, while Trump has suggested the war will only end with a compliant government in Tehran or “unconditional surrender”. That tells us everything: even the coalition fighting Iran is not all aiming for the same outcome; similar and parallel, but not identical. From the perspective of the strictest Israeli security standards, victory means complete elimination or as close to it as military force can achieve. Eliminate the nuclear threat, or at least reduce it to a level where it is no longer useful in the near future. Minimise the missile threat as much as possible. Eradicate the naval threat. Dismantle enough command, control, and industrial capacity so the regime cannot rebuild its power significantly anytime soon. Remove the regime entirely, if possible. For Israel, what happens inside Iran next is a secondary concern. Civil war, elite fractures, balkanisation, or a combination of all three; all are acceptable from this perspective, provided what emerges is less dangerous than the previous regime. Israel’s aim is not to create a just political future for Iran, but to ensure that the state which has threatened it for decades is no longer capable of doing so on a large scale. From the coldest American perspective, the ultimate goal is more transactional. Washington does not require a free Iran to declare success. It does not even necessarily need a new Iran. It needs a pacified Iran, with weaker, deterrable, and more penetrable leadership that is sufficiently pro-American to fit back into a US-managed regional order. If that order also ensures energy leverage remains within Washington’s sphere rather than Beijing’s, even better. Within this framework, destroying or severely weakening Iran’s missile forces, nuclear sites, and navy might suffice to claim a significant victory, even if the political system in Tehran persists in a changed form. However, there is a limit to all this rhetoric. On Monday, oil prices fluctuated sharply amid fears of supply cuts and disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow passage for about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flows. If this conflict triggers a global economic crisis through sustained increases in oil prices, much of the victory talk becomes meaningless. A campaign can succeed tactically but still fail in the most important measure if it provokes a worldwide inflationary surge. Victory for the regime is much simpler: survival. The Islamic Republic does not need to defeat the United States or Israel in any conventional sense to claim success. It only needs to remain in existence, preserve a coercive core, and tell its supporters that it has absorbed the blow and endured. For a revolutionary regime, survival is vindication. Mere continuation becomes proof of divine favour, ideological correctness, and historical resilience. The bar is low, which is exactly what makes it dangerous. Clausewitz is valuable here because he cuts straight to the core. War is an act of force used to enforce one’s will on an enemy. Destruction is a means, not a goal. You have not compelled Iran because you sank ships, destroyed runways, blew up missile launchers, or cratered nuclear infrastructure. You have only diminished their capability. That might buy time, perhaps years, but it is not the same as securing a lasting political outcome. If the same ideological project persists at the top, then Iran will rebuild. It may take years or decades, but religious revolutionaries think long-term. They know how to transform punishment into sacrifice. Monday’s appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei, a sign that hardliners still hold firm control, only highlights that point. If post-war regime control mechanisms remain intact, then the war has not ended the threat. It has only interrupted it and bought a brief pause. That is why so much official language about victory feels elusive. “We destroyed X” is a military assertion. “We compelled the enemy to abandon Y” is a political assertion. These are not the same statement. Trump’s own rhetoric reveals this clearly. When he discusses a war that is both essentially over and not yet sufficiently victorious, he is hinting at a truth he cannot state outright: battlefield damage does not automatically settle the political issues. You can obliterate infrastructure and still fail to resolve succession, legitimacy, or intent. You can win the strike war and still lose the broader conflict over what kind of state of Iran remains. <https://substack.com/redirect/197db406-9ddf-4e00-a42b-b28ea68d2a85?j=eyJ1IjoiM3oxb3ZvIn0.8F23ZsL0FrlN6ZHlVPR0s6DTjmoZwDql8W1ssgSTYow> There is only one victory worth pursuing without exception: victory for the Iranian people. Freedom from the regime. Not merely a weaker Islamic Republic, a battered IRGC, or a new leader presiding over the same machinery of repression. True victory would mean an Iran no longer governed through clerical coercion, ideological policing, regional adventurism, hostage mentality, and ongoing internal violence. That would be the most difficult victory of all because outsiders can dismantle a state faster than they can build a decent polity. Foreign air power can destroy capability. It cannot, on its own, legitimise institutions or liberty, but if that freedom were achieved, it would also be the greatest victory by far. So, what does victory in Iran look like? Currently, there are several different answers. Israel might define victory as eliminating a threat. America could see victory as a peaceful Iran with stable oil supplies. The regime may consider mere survival a triumph. However, the only victory that truly improves the region is one where Iranians are no longer held hostage by the system that has brutalised them for decades. Everything else amounts to either degradation, delay, or propaganda. _____ Paid subscribers support the fieldwork, the reports, and the independence that makes this analysis possible. 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