Has Trump Met His War Goals in Iran?

On the first day of the U.S.-Israeli strikes against Iran, President Trump laid out his war goals in an eight-minute video.

“Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime,” he said as an overview on Feb. 28, even though there is no evidence that Iran posed an urgent danger to the United States.

Now with a tenuous cease-fire in place, the president and his aides are expected to try to force Iran to make concessions during negotiations, with the aim of meeting some of the goals he initially stated.

Here is an assessment of where the war stands based on five aims he described in that video.

OBJECTIVE No. 1

“We’re going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally again obliterated.”

The U.S. and Israeli militaries have destroyed many of Iran’s ballistic missiles and launchers in airstrikes. But a large number are undamaged, and Iran continued to fire missiles in the region on the first day of the cease-fire. In addition, it is using attack drones.

At least five Gulf Arab nations said Wednesday that they had been attacked by missiles and drones fired by Iran after the agreement to pause combat. Those strikes, along with other developments, including continuing assaults by Israel in Lebanon, could jeopardize the cease-fire. (Iran said its oil refinery on Lavan Island had been attacked.)