Six Months—and Counting

 Today marks the semianniversary of the beginning of the Iran War. The most hysterical predictions have not been borne out, as they seldom are, but the reality has been unpleasant enough. A huge amount of American materiel has been expended without accomplishing the (admittedly unrealistic) political goal of ousting the ayatollahs, or even getting them to acquiesce under duress to some settlement advantageous to the United States. Energy flows from the Persian Gulf region are still constricted, and Brent crude prices are still floating between $85 and $90 per barrel. Iranian retaliatory strikes have sufficiently savaged American bases in the Middle East to render the U.S. military hesitant to use them. As ungemütlich as this is for us, it’s worse for our regional partners; to take just one recent illustration, data reported Wednesday show that Qatari natural gas exports are down by 96 percent since the outbreak of the war. 

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