182 DAYS, AND NO END IN SIGHT: In the heady early days of President Donald Trump’s war of choice against Iran, his “war” secretary Pete Hegseth was oozing with overconfidence and brimming with unbridled bravado. At a Pentagon briefing after five weeks of bombing, Hegseth declared Operation Epic Fury “a capital V military victory” that had dealt Iran “a devastating military defeat.” The war, he said, was over. “Iran accepted the ceasefire under overwhelming pressure.”To say with hindsight that sounds premature and hopelessly naive would be to risk serious understatement. It should be noted that while he has fired dozens of highly decorated generals and admirals, Hegseth’s only real experience in an active war zone was 20 years ago as an Army Reserve 1st lieutenant in a restive area of Iraq where, according to his memoir, his job was “building relationships with local tribal power brokers.” As the civilian head of the military, Hegseth apparently paid little heed to two well-worn maxims drilled into the heads of every Pentagon war planner, to wit: “No plan survives first contact with the enemy,” and “The enemy gets a vote.”And then there’s “An army travels on its stomach,” but let’s not get into the travails of USS Lincoln right now. The carrier is on the way home, and the crew was treated to a steel deck picnic en route.