Are we "really" at war with Iran?

This feels a little like suggesting that the 16 year older brother is fighting with the 9 year old little brother. In reality he is just beating him up.

Now that Trump has decided that Iran is not worth trying to negotiate with, the pundits are all suggesting that means we are "back at war". But from a traditional sense, the concept of a "war" generally is some sort of back and forth with two armies battling for supremacy. In the case of the US and Iran, there is only one military fighting and that is the United States Military. Iran has some members of their Republican Guard out there causing trouble. But the IRGC is not an actual military army as we generally see them. They are more of an internal security force designed to protect the clerical regime, than an army that would generally fight with other Armies. They have killed far more of their own citizens than any foreigners. To the degree that the Iranians had an actual armed forces designed to fight a war with a foreign power, they have largely suffered from the same state as their air force and navy. They no longer exist.

This will not stop people from demanding that we are "at war" or even suggesting that somehow, in spite of suffering no military defeats, we are currently "losing" a war to a country that effectively has no real way to defend themselves, much less attack our soliders. A drone attack by a rogue party within Iran aimed at a commercial ship that is not American does not in fact, by any definition, constitute any real military strategies. These are political strategies designed in large part to help them with their so called negoatiations. The longer and more serious we negotiate, the more these tactics are used.

Obviously, since they have little or no other recourse, they may continue to lash out at commercial ships out of frustration or hope that it will somehow change reality even if there is no negotiations. But this is simply because they have no other options and seem more than happy to negotiate till the end of time while never actually following through or holding to their end of the bargain.

I hope the President has learned his lesson and simply pulls everyone currently negotiating out of the Middle East, brings them home, and cuts off any negotiations moving forward. If it was my call, I would simply go back to setting up the blockade of all Iranian vessels, allow all others to proceed and then after several nights of bombing let the Iranians know that we will continue to bomb if they interrupt anyone moving through the strait. Will that work? Probably not. But it is a legitimate excuse to continue to bomb until there is nothing left to bomb. Then we can move out and let the people who need to get their ships through the strait deal with Iran if Iran decides to rebuild and start the same nonsense over again. I would give up on the idea of garnering any sort of "deal" as it would never hold. Just make sure they are not physically capable of creating a bomb for any foreseeable future.