Srinagar, June 24 -- It is now clear that Israel's surprise preemptive strikes on Iran's nuclear and military sites were calculated to cripple Iran's capacity. Instead, they triggered an unprecedented direct exchange that laid bare not only Iran's resilience but also its ability to absorb punishment and respond proportionately, despite crippling sanctions and decades of covert warfare. Iran's decision to calibrate its missile attacks, even when targeting American forces, demonstrated not reckless adventurism but a hard-headed realism to avoid a wider regional inferno.

For far too long, military establishments in Washington and Tel Aviv have relied on the perceived vulnerability of Iran to unilateral strikes, confident that regime change,...