Sri Lanka, July 24 -- For two weeks running, the United States has been conducting daily bombing raids across Iran. In response, Iran has been firing drones and missiles at US military bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan, inflicting significant losses on the US. When this war will end defies common-sense apprehension.

The escalation resembles a war of attrition, in which each side seeks to gradually wear down the other through sustained losses in military power and morale, rather than achieving a swift, decisive victory. Such wars end when one side no longer has the resources or will to continue fighting.

The will to fight, even while suffering losses, is found in abundance in Iran's strategic culture-shaped by Shiite Islam's martyrdo...