Success or failure isn’t judged by how many explosions or dead bodies each side racks up. Def Sec McNamara admits he made that mistake during the Vietnam war when he repeatedly asserted the US was winning with all sorts of statistics and charts with steep lines pointing up.

The real question is whether political objectives are achieved. In Iran, those were vaguely defined to begin with, but depending on the moment and mood of the President they were:

1. Prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon now or in the foreseeable future (Not Achieved)

2. Remove Iran’s theocratic anti-American regime (Not Achieved)

3. Maintain international access to key shipping routes (Negative Achieved, much worse than pre-war status quo)

So after spending billions of dollars, depleting stockpiles of our most modern precision weapons against a vastly inferior military technologically, losing 18 American lives and resulting in both global economic disruption and to our Gulf allies, the war has failed to accomplish any objectives and left everyone in a worse position than before the war except the IRGC.