US air defence systems and troops have been withdrawn from East Asia. Pleas for missile interceptors in the oil-rich Gulf have been "stonewalled". Even an air base in Romania has been roped into the US-Israeli war on Iran.
What US President Donald Trump has characterised as a “little excursion” is fast becoming the biggest drain on the security architecture of the world’s foremost superpower since the end of the Cold War.
The US is taking a lot from its partners across the globe to wage war on the Islamic Republic, even as lawmakers and world leaders question what the purpose of the conflict is.
To make matters worse, the Trump administration has yet to provide answers to tactical questions about how it will break Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz or tame energy prices that have skyrocketed as a result.
“The problem the US will need to recover from is the loss of credibility as it opened a Pandora’s box without thinking through what would happen next. Lack of competence is a terrible thing to display in public,” Peter Frankopan, a professor of global history at Oxford University, told Middle East Eye.
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