US President Donald Trump entered the Iran conflict promising strength, leverage and ultimately an unconditional surrender by Iran leading to a nuclear deal on American terms. Instead, he now appears caught in what CNN analyst Stephen Collinson describes as a geopolitical version of the Penrose stairs -- a staircase that seems to rise and fall endlessly yet always returns to the same place.
Every attempt to solve one problem appears to create another. Diplomatic agreements failed to produce stability, and fresh US strikes have not stopped Iranian retaliation. And as fighting resumes around the Strait of Hormuz, Trump is discovering that military power alone may not be enough to deliver the decisive outcome he once promised.
