I have said before and I will say it again. Small and middle powers should be aware of their own relevance and limitations(I watch video of former Singapore foreign minister who said the same thing). You should not have an open/public hostile relationship with any superpower. In fact you should be trying to court them and balance it with your own interests . It’s foolish adopting a hostile relationship with any superpower. Since if that superpower decides to disregards all laws and restrain them they will impose heavy blows and destruction to you without suffering as much consequences . So it’s imperative to have level headed and shrewd leaders for middle powers.
In this regard, Iran has failed completely. The results we see today are the culmination of decades of bad decisions and policies which has steamrolled to what we see today. Today most of their Arab neighbors and even Turkey are better off than them(again due to their leaders policies and shrewdness), . Iran has found itself with barely any real ally to even help them (apart from some militias like hezbollah who have been weakened to the point of being a shadow of their former self today ). Damn…who could have thought Hamas stupid against Israel on October 7 will lead to this(axis of resistance almost destroyed and weakened to this state). It seems like a domino started since that crazy day.
Anyway, this my point also applies to other small/middle powers in Asia like Philippines/Taiwan (Japan is bigger and still have the industrial might for her own actions ) who seem to think antagonizing China for nationalistic/patriotic reasons is a good idea, seems this middle countries haven’t learned anything from the Ukraine conflict and how Ukraine is suffering from some decisions she made(despite heavy European support), hopefully Iran’s situation today will make them think twice again. Well, at least I understand Philippines and Taiwan leaders , they dare do so since they know the current military superpower US is behind them and backs them, so I can still give them some leeway(even though I think it’s a misguided policy ) , but I fail to understand what Iran has even been counting on to be honest. In fact , the saving grace for Iran today is not the missiles and drones they still try and launch, it’s from US political landscape where there is strong opposition to any war in Middle East , because if this was 2003 where most Americans overwhelmingly supported such wars and didn’t mind being in it for years then afraid Iran would have been done for. So I think unlike Netanyahu who has strong support at home to deal with Iran once and for all , Trump will want a quick exit due to political reasons
