I think it's fairly obvious that this administration expected Iran to crumble entirely under the current assault, and has been improvising ever since it was realized that Iran isn't Venezuela. That isn't a partisan comment, it's just an assessment of the fact that the constantly-changing rationales and statements from various admin officials that continually contradict each other, make it clear that while we may have had a target list and while we may have destroyed much of what was on that list, there was very little contingency planning or forecasting around what might happen if we didn't achieve swift victory.

Despite everything, Iran still retains the current regime. It retains the ability to close the SoH, and to strike our allies in the Gulf, not to mention our own bases in the region. If this is "winning," I'd hate to see what losing looks like.