Iran started with 5 demands:

* US out of middle east entirely (meaning removing the army bases protecting the gulf countries)

* Cessation of hostilities, including their proxy forces

* Security guarantees, including for their proxy forces (translation: letting Iran fully take over Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and probably soon Saudi Arabia)

* Payment of war reparations to the IRGC

* Taxing the strait of Hormuz

They're down to 1 demand only (according to the politicians who don't seem to be able to actually command their own forces): cessation of hostilities, only against Iran itself.

This war is the culmination of Iran's plans to remove US influence from the middle east. The result of the islamists strategy is that every other country is screaming for the US to do more. Iran's war aims haven't just failed, they've cemented the US position 10x tighter than it was. They've shown gulf countries how much Chinese support is worth. How much French support is worth. How much EU support is worth when shit hits the fan.

Hell, at this point, if I was the EU, I'd ask myself the question "given how much we've, yet again, helped our allies ... let's double check WHY Ukraine would ever pay back our support" (EU support to Ukraine only ever came in the form of loans, and some Russian cash under EU control)

I'd say the assessment that the US is winning big is pretty accurate. Iran no longer believes what they want, what they were fighting for is worth fighting for, and they're down to mere survival. One might even say: they're down to begging for their survival, because they're not doing much other than asking. On the upside: this can only mean that the islamist regime sees total defeat as a real possibility now. On the downside, it probably means they're getting ready to massacre Iranians indiscriminately ... and then what do we do? I mean if Iranian islamists start massacring their own civilians, like all of them, whoever they can (like they've already done in Lebanon and Syria) on the one hand that solves our problem, on the other hand US will probably fight to prevent that from happening.

You could even say that the other theory that now that the US is back to selling processed Venezuelan oil, arguably it's a good thing for the US that Hormuz is closed. If you calculate it out $100 oil delivers about 65 billion profit (not revenue, profit) for the US as a whole, and forces the EU to pay for that. Of course, that money is going to big oil, but still, that's the US. In effect it's the EU and China that are paying for the US war on Iran.

Oh, AND this war ... it's showing Israeli, including the diaspora, yet again they have to fight for their survival (the new generation wasn't all that convinced, but they are now). In other words, this may even get Netanyahu reelected.

Like any war, this can go very badly very quickly ... but it appears to be going pretty well.

US forces locate and evacuate downed airman in Iran