Wars rarely begin as “forever wars”. Leaders sell a short, controlled operation with a defined target. But mission creep turns that pitch into a pattern – retaliation cycles, credibility politics, alliance pressures and market shocks – that pull those governments deeper into a crisis and make stopping the assaults harder. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Governments start with narrow goals (“degrade”, “disrupt”), then drift towards open-ended aims (“restore deterrence”, “force compliance”) – objectives their airpower cannot conclusively deliver. When the rationale for war becomes abstract, the endpoint becomes negotiable. How wars become open-ended The bombs falling on Iran follow a long history of interventions by the United States abroad. President Donald Trump, reportedly encouraged by a military operation in January that abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, boasted of helping to rebuild Venezuela. However, Venezuela remains embroiled in a protracted political and economic crisis. In the case of Iran, US allies in Europe were more sceptical as they invoked the lessons for the West from the 2003-2011 Iraq war. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro …