When American and Israeli aircraft struck Iran on February 28, 2026, delivering nearly 900 strikes in twelve hours and killing Supreme Leader Khamenei along with dozens of senior commanders, the world witnessed what appeared to be a sudden and overwhelming military triumph. Yet the deeper story is one of patient economic attrition: years of sanctions had quietly hollowed out Iran's capacity to defend its own skies long before the first bomb fell. To mistake the military campaign for the cause of Iran's vulnerability, rather than its consequence, is to misread the architecture of modern strateg
Sanctions Enabled Military Victory in Iran War, Analysis Argues
Dozens of senior Iranian military commanders and officials, including the armed forces' chief of staff, died in the opening wave of strikes on February 28, 2026.