Interesting discussion regarding wars of choice v wars of necessity. However, in this case israel sees it as a war of necessity while USA as a war of choice. Depending on which actor's vision prevails determines the duration of the conflict. www.ft.com/content/0321...

America chose this war — and must now choose how to end it

However this conflict concludes, the US and Iran’s new leaders will have to revisit the same issues that sparked hostilities

ft.com

I'm out of words here

Much talk about whether we are seeing the start of a WW3 - more accurately the US/Israel - Iran war is a regional war led by Israel with the US supporting them. This is a regional war with global implications rather than a global one happening in the Middle East region.

The focus on trying to understand Trump's goal and plans in Iran - misrepresents the current war as a US-led war with Israel as a key ally, rather than as an Israeli war with the US as a key ally.

The Venezuelan example doesnt work not only because Iran is not Venezuela but critically because US/Israeli goals are very different. In Venezuela - Trump was happy to keep the regime intact so long as the figurehead changed. In Iran, Israel wants to substantially degrade Iranian power.