War is not checkers.It is chess, a game that began in India and was refined and carried through Persia, where "shah" meant king and "shah mat" meant the king was helpless.
The language matters because strategy, whether in chess or war, is not only about placing an opponent in check.It is about knowing how to finish the game.President Donald Trump holds the stronger pieces, and Tehran knows it.
That is why Iran is not trying to match America move for move.It is trying to widen the board before Washington decides how to close the game.The pattern is now familiar.
Trump strikes Iranian military targets.Iran pressures commercial shipping.
Trump tightens the maritime noose.Iran threatens new energy routes.
Each American move is answered not by matching American firepower, but by shifting the pressure somewhere else: at sea, in oil markets, across Gulf capitals and inside Washington's political debate.U.S.Central Command has confirmed a fresh wave of strikes on Iranian coastal defense and missile sites, part of an effort to reimpose a naval blockade on Iranian ports and degrade Tehran's ability to threaten Hormuz shipping.
Iran answered with strikes on U.S.-linked targets in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan, and with cruise-missile strikes that killed and wounded mariners aboard tankers in the strait.Tehran is trying to make each American strike produce a wider problem.MIKE POMPEO: PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S PRESSURE CAMPAIGN ON IRAN WILL LEAD TO A NON-NUCLEAR AMBITIOUS REGIMEPresident Donald Trump has put Iran in check, but he needs to finish the game. (SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images)That is not simple retaliation.
It is a counter-move, and Iran has used this approach before.During the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), Tehran helped turn the Persian Gulf into a battlefield in what became known as the Tanker War.The U.S.
Navy launched Operation Earnest Will to escort reflagged Kuwaiti tankers through the Gulf.In April 1988, the frigate USS Samuel B.
Roberts struck an Iran...