Nigeria, May 29 -- When the United States and Israel launched their massive, coordinated air campaign against Iran on February 28, the playbook seemed entirely conventional. It was designed as a textbook operation of 21st-century Western dominance: establish uncontested skies, dismantle air defenses, obliterate missile infrastructure, and decapitate the regime's leadership. The swift elimination of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was supposed to be the masterstroke that would trigger a systemic collapse.

Instead, three months into a grinding, multi-theater conflict, the war has achieved the exact opposite. Rather than demonstrating unmatched Western strength, the war has acted as a crucible by exposing the structural fragility, st...