Daniel Davis Deep Dive Col Doug Macgregor: If We Go Back to Bombing Iran
May 12, 2026
Col Doug Macgregor, retired U.S. Army colonel and military analyst, weighs in on Iran, U.S. strategy, and great-power rivalry. He argues U.S. force design and industrial limits clash with Iran’s attrition defenses. He discusses economic fallout, Gulf allies’ expectations, China’s strategic posture, and the risks of renewed bombing pushing Tehran toward nuclear options.
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Trump's Iran Strategy Was A Strategic Bluff
- President Trump's Iran approach is a psychological bluff that created an outward show of success but failed against a state like Iran.
- Col Douglas Macgregor argues Iran prepared for long attritional conflict with geography, standoff missiles and drones, so a short decisive U.S. campaign was the wrong instrument.
U.S. Forces Built For Short Wars Fail In Attrition Fight
- The U.S. military is structured and trained for short, decisive wars, not long attritional campaigns like the one Iran envisioned and executed.
- Macgregor notes Iran designed defenses exploiting persistent surveillance denial and thousands of standoff missiles and drones across difficult terrain.
Industrial Capacity, Not Platforms, Determines Endurance
- The U.S. lacks industrial depth to sustain prolonged high-intensity conflicts; ammunition and production constraints matter more than platform counts.
- Macgregor contrasts Ukraine's externally sustained drone/missile production with U.S. dependence on limited production capitalists.