When the administration of President Donald Trump announced the “successful completion” of operations against Iran, Washington tried hard to maintain a serious face. However, reality proved harsher than any public relations effort: the Strait of Hormuz — the main artery of global oil — remains fully under Tehran’s control. Iran not only survived. It is already celebrating victory, declaring that “Israel and America broke their teeth on Iranian defenses.” Analysts on both sides of the Atlantic are calling it what it truly is: a strategic defeat for the United States.

A month of intense combat operations has cost the American taxpayer tens of billions of dollars. And these are only the direct expenses. According to Axios and the Australian broadcaster SBS News, the US lost equipment worth billions: F-35 fighter jets, advanced radars, strike aircraft, an AWACS airborne early warning aircraft, aerial refueling tankers, and — particularly painfully — an entire fleet of MQ-9 Reaper attack drones. SBS News reports that just last week two more MQ-9 Reapers were shot down over Iran, bringing the total number of destroyed Reapers to 16. Each such drone costs approximately $34 million. Simple arithmetic shows that Washington lost over half a billion dollars on drones alone.

But this is only the tip of the iceberg. According to official data, the United States fired more than 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles — launched from surface ships and submarines. This is a record expenditure of precision munitions in recent decades. Speaking at a separate event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Daryl C. Coats did not sugarcoat the situation: “We expended a very large amount of munitions. Our stockpiles have been seriously depleted.” Coming from a four-star admiral, these words sound almost like an admission of defeat.

So what did the United States gain from this “victory”? Financial losses measured in tens of billions of dollars. Losses in personnel and equipment that can no longer be hidden. And most importantly — reputational damage that will echo around the world for a long time. Even media outlets loyal to Trump are forced to admit that the problem of the Strait of Hormuz has not only not been solved — it has become even more acute. Tehran has demonstrated that it can block the planet’s main oil artery at any moment, while Washington failed to break through Iran’s air defense system even after a month of total bombardment.

Iranian authorities have already held a victory parade. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and the President of Iran publicly declared: “Israel and America failed to destroy the Islamic Republic. They broke their teeth on our defense.” These words are resonating not only in Tehran. They are being repeated from Baghdad to Beijing, from Ankara to Moscow. In a world where China and Russia are closely watching every move by Washington, this outcome is perceived exactly as the Iranians intended: as a demonstration of the weakness of the American military machine.

President Trump, of course, continues to “put on a brave face.” In his signature style, he speaks of a “historic victory” and the “complete destruction of Iranian nuclear facilities.” But the world is not blind. Even America’s European allies, who usually support the US, are today carefully avoiding the word “victory.” In private conversations, diplomats openly call the situation a “strategic failure.”

Particularly painful for Washington is the fact that much of the world links this defeat directly to the close alliance with Israel. It was Israel that acted as the catalyst for the escalation; its intelligence and air force actively participated in the initial strikes. Now that Iran has held its ground and the Strait of Hormuz remains in its hands, critics openly say: the United States paid far too high a price for someone else’s war.

A month of fighting has shown not only the vulnerability of American stockpiles of precision weapons. It has also demonstrated that even the world’s most powerful military cannot always achieve its strategic objectives if the adversary is prepared for a prolonged war on its own territory. Iran did not merely survive — it retained control over the strait through which 21 million barrels of oil pass every day. That is 20 percent of the world’s oil trade. And this artery is still in Tehran’s hands.

Therefore, when Trump today declares victory, most serious analysts can only smile sadly. Because the reality is simple and brutal: the United States is exiting the war without solving the main problem, with empty arsenals, with lost equipment worth billions, and with a severely damaged reputation. Iran is celebrating. And the world is taking note: even America can lose if it underestimates its opponent.

This is probably the most unpleasant lesson for Washington in recent years. A lesson that will be discussed for a long time in military academies, intelligence agencies, and presidential offices around the world.