Comment by ben_w

Broadly agree; while I don't see these as important to the kinds of similarity, the things I am focusing on are essentially arbitrary.

> - Iran is not "winning" by holding the line in conventional warfare (like Ukraine). They would not stand a chance. They're winning because they're pain tolerance for collateral damage is higher than the US tolerance for high oil prices.

I'd push back a bit on that. I agree the Iranian government is extremely pain tolerant; my understanding is that the terrain and strategic considerations mean an actual invasion would take around 1/3 to 1/2 of the current US army, marines, and airforce, 1/5 to 1/3 of the navy, for 6-12 months.

This is the other half of the pain tolerance question: the US, isn't. Despite the bombast of the Executive.