The View From Professor Dominic Tierney, Author of The Right Way to Lose a War • FRANCE 24 English

Why It Matters

The discussion highlights the risk that an improvised Iran campaign could trap the United States in a costly, protracted conflict, underscoring the need for strategic exit planning in future interventions.

Key Takeaways

• US has rarely won major post‑World War II wars, per Tierney.
• War plans must include multi‑step exit strategies to avoid escalation.
• Trump’s Iran campaign appears improvised, risking the “escalation trap.”
• Tierney proposes “surge, talk, lead” as a pragmatic exit framework.
• Political objectives, not battlefield victories, ultimately determine war outcomes.

Summary

The interview on France 24 centers on Professor Dominic Tierney’s 2015 book *The Right Way to Lose a War*, which examines America’s post‑World War II conflicts—from Korea and Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan—and applies its lessons to the newly launched war against Iran.

Tierney argues that the United States has barely won a major war since 1945, and that each campaign has suffered from a failure to plan beyond the initial strike. He warns that wars quickly evolve in unexpected ways, turning regime‑change missions into protracted counter‑insurgencies, and that the current Trump‑led Iran operation lacks a coherent second‑through‑fifth‑step strategy, exposing it to the classic “escalation trap.”

The professor outlines a three‑phase exit model—‘surge, talk, lead’—as a pragmatic way to avoid a quagmire, likening it to a ‘break‑glass’ emergency plan. He cites Lyndon Johnson’s escalation in Vietnam and the hubris displayed in the Venezuelan episode as historical parallels, and stresses Clausewitz’s insight that war is merely politics by other means, urging leaders to focus on political, not purely kinetic, objectives.

For policymakers, Tierney’s analysis signals that without clear exit criteria and a balanced political‑military approach, the Iran conflict could spiral into a costly, indefinite engagement. Adopting his framework could help the United States protect core interests while preventing the overextension that has plagued past wars.

Original Description

Dominic Tierney, the author of The Right Way to Lose a War, published in 2015, looking at US conflicts from Korea, to Vietnam, Iraq, to Afghanistan and the lessons taken from them. Dominic is professor of political science at Swarthmore College and a senior fellow at the foreign policy reserach institute.

#iran #israel #war

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