The Iranian regime's grand strategy against the United States looks remarkably like the one George Washington used to beat the British Empire in the American War of Independence.

Washington’s playbook wasn't about winning spectacular battlefield victories. It was a "Fabian strategy":

• Keep the Continental Army intact as a political symbol.
• Drag out the conflict indefinitely.  
• Drive up the financial and political costs until the British public and Parliament lost the domestic will to keep funding a distant war.

Now look at Tehran’s approach to its war with the US and Israel. Its goals mirror 1776:  

• Survival is Victory: The regime’s primary goal is keeping its core structure intact. If it avoids direct overthrow and survives Western interventions, it wins.  
• Economic Attrition: Iran uses ultra-cheap hardware to drain massive U.S. resources. A single Iranian-designed Shahed one-way attack drone costs $20,000 to $50,000. The U.S. routinely fires Patriot interceptors costing $4 million each to down them—a staggering cost-exchange ratio in Iran's favor. It costs Iran little to keep its forces in the field at home, while it costs the US $bns to deploy its forces in the Gulf theater (and keep them there as a deterrent during the 'ceasefire'.)
• Targeting Domestic Will: By drawing out gray-zone conflicts and utilizing regional proxies, Iran aims to induce strategic fatigue in Washington. The objective is to make the long-term political and financial price tag of U.S. involvement in the Middle East unpalatable to the American voter and Congress 

Iran's Achilles: While Washington could rely on the oceans to protect his logistics and draw on large resource wealth, Iran faces massive internal exposure. Unlike 18th-century America, Tehran’s biggest threat isn’t actually the foreign military on its doorstep—it is the explosive economic strain and domestic unrest brewing among its own population at home 

Iran is betting it can outlast the USA's interest in seeing the conflict through—but they are racing against the clock of their own internal collapse.