Trump, Putin and the illusion of a "short war" -. The Financial Times. Part 2/2 Of course these parallels can be taken too far. Putin is trying to overthrow the democratic government in Ukraine and annex large areas of the neighboring country. The Iranian regime, on the other hand, is a brutal dictatorship that has killed many thousands of its citizens in the streets. Neither the US nor Israel are trying to annex Iranian territory. The internal differences between the US and Russian systems are also fundamental, meaning that the consequences of a failed war will be very different for the two countries. The war with Iran - and its inflationary effect - played a central role in the Republican Party's crushing defeat in last week's midterm elections. It is still possible that the Trump administration will return to the fight and intensify the attacks on Iran. But history shows that the American political system eventually forces presidents to retreat from failed wars. This pattern has been confirmed in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq - and now in Iran. Putin's failed war has caused terrible and lasting damage to Ukraine. In addition, it will cause long-term damage to Russia itself. However, the Russian system lacks democratic checks that could force Putin to deviate from his chosen course. The elections in Russia are rigged. Anti-war parties are not allowed to participate in elections, and usually real opposition politicians like Alexei Navalny or Boris Nemtsov are killed. And so the war continues. The key question now hanging in world politics is whether Xi Jinping will learn from the failures of Putin and Trump. It is widely believed that the Chinese leader has ordered his country's military to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. (It's already next year, in case you haven't noticed).