‘Iranians are playing a different game’: Ex R&AW chief Vikram Sood says Iran war likely to go on for longer than expected

While the Iranians are willing to die in this war, the Americans are not willing to die on a foreign land, said former R&AW chief Vikram Sood. He highlighted how the Iranians are “playing a different game”, and how that makes a whole lot of difference. 

Speaking to news agency ANI, Sood said, “It’s difficult to say how long it will take, but I think it would last longer than what the Americans thought it would because they were hoping for a short, sharp strike and out. But, the Iranians are playing a different game.They are playing to their strengths. They are knocking off America’s allies, which is creating unrest among them against America.”

“Remember, the Iranians are willing to die, but the Americans are not willing to die on the ground in Iran. They are very very nervous about body-bags coming home. So, they want to keep it to air attacks or missile attacks as far as possible. But that won’t make a difference in the short run. This war, I think the war will go on for a little longer than most expected,” he added.

Trump and his administration has been indicating that they are “ahead of schedule” in the Iran war, which they expected to go on for four-five weeks. Trump had said that the war was initially projected to go on for four to five weeks but the US military has the “capability to go far longer than that”.

While Trump and co cited various reasons for the attack on Iran – their strengthening nuclear programme, need for regime change, imminent threat to the US – they are yet to settle on a unifying narrative for initiating the war in collaboration with Israel. 

Meanwhile, US Admiral Brad Cooper said on Wednesday, “We are seeing that Iran’s ability to hit us, and our partners, is declining, while our combat power, on the other hand, is building…My overall operational assessment is that we are ahead of our game plan.”

The uncertainty over the longevity of the war, compounded by the supply shortage of energy, has led to widespread anxiety across nations. India has been given a waiver of 30 days to procure Russian oil, while it has asked all oil refiners to maximise LPG output.