Ever since President Trump began what he now delicately calls his “excursion” into Iran, Washington has been consumed by the question of when he would call it a day — even if many of his war goals remain unaccomplished.

自从特朗普总统开始了他现在委婉地称为对伊朗的“远足”以来，华盛顿一直纠结于他何时会收手的问题——尽管他的许多战争目标仍未实现。

On Friday evening, as he headed to Florida, Mr. Trump seemed to be designing that much-discussed exit. But he clearly has not yet decided whether to take it.

周五晚上，在前往佛罗里达州途中，特朗普似乎正在设计那个被广泛讨论的退出方案。但他显然尚未决定是否要这么做。

And there is mounting evidence — average gas price approaching $4 a gallon, infrastructure in ruins across the Persian Gulf, a decimated Iranian theocracy digging in and American allies at first rebuffing and now struggling with demands to patrol hostile waters — that the repercussions of Mr. Trump’s excursion may outlast his interest in it.

而且越来越多的证据——平均汽油价格逼近每加仑4美元；波斯湾地区基础设施化为废墟；遭受重创的伊朗神权体制正在负隅顽抗，以及美国盟友起初拒绝、现在正艰难应对在敌对水域巡逻的要求表明——特朗普这次“远足”的后果可能会比他对此事的兴趣持续得更久。

As always, Mr. Trump’s messaging is inconsistent, which his critics cite as evidence that he entered this conflict with no strategy and his followers cheer as strategic ambiguity. With thousands of additional Marines headed to the region and the pace of American and Israeli attacks quickening, Mr. Trump told reporters on Friday he had no interest in a cease-fire because the United States was “obliterating” Iran’s missile stocks, navy, air force and defense industrial base.

一如既往，特朗普发出的信息前后矛盾，批评者将此视为他毫无战略地卷入这场冲突的证据，他的追随者则欢呼这是战略模糊。随着数千名海军陆战队员增援该地区、美以袭击步伐加快，特朗普在周五告诉记者，他对停火不感兴趣，因为美国正在“摧毁”伊朗的导弹库存、海军、空军和国防工业基础。

Hours later, perhaps sensitive to a Republican base understandably nervous about the political effects, he posted on his social media site that “we are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East.”

几小时后，或许是察觉到共和党基本盘对政治影响的合理担忧，他在社交媒体上发帖称：“我们正非常接近实现我们的目标，同时我们也在考虑缩减我们在中东的伟大军事努力。”

But his latest list of those objectives left out a few of his previous goals and watered down others. He made no mention of defeating the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which appears to remain in power, along with Mojtaba Khamenei, who has succeeded his father as supreme leader, though he has yet to be seen or heard in public. Mr. Trump also omitted any message to the Iranian people, whom he told only three weeks ago: “When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take.”

但他最新的目标清单遗漏了之前的一些目标，并淡化了其他目标。他没有提及击败伊斯兰革命卫队，后者似乎仍然掌权，另外还有接替其父成为最高领袖但尚未公开露面或发声的穆杰塔巴·哈梅内伊。特朗普也没有向伊朗人民发出任何信息，而就在三周前他还告诉他们：“等我们完事了，接管你们的政府。它将是你们的。”

And after insisting in the failed negotiations that led up to the war that Iran had to ship all of its nuclear material out of the country — starting with the 970 pounds of enriched uranium that are closest to bomb-grade — he suggested a new goal. “Never allowing Iran to get even close to Nuclear Capability,” he wrote, “and always being in a position where the U.S.A. can quickly and powerfully react to such a situation.”

在导致战争爆发的失败谈判中，他曾坚持要求伊朗必须将其所有核材料运出境外——从最接近武器级的440公斤浓缩铀开始，而现在他提出了一个新目标。“绝不允许伊朗接近获得核能力，”他写道，“并且始终处于美国能够迅速而有力地应对这种情况的位置。”

上周六，美以空袭后的德黑兰。

That is, essentially, where the United States was after it buried Iran’s nuclear program in rubble last June. The sites have remained under the watchful eye of U.S. spy satellites.

这基本上就是去年6月美国将伊朗核计划夷为平地后的状态。这些地点一直处于美国间谍卫星的监视之下。

Mr. Trump ended the posting with a new demand for American allies, whom he had frozen out of his deliberations before starting the war, and gave no warning to prepare for its consequences. “The Hormuz Strait will have to be guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it — the United States does not!” American forces would help, he said.

特朗普以对美国盟友的新要求结束了帖子，他在开战前将盟友排除在决策之外，且未警告他们为后果做准备。“霍尔木兹海峡必须由使用它的其他国家——必要时——进行守卫和巡逻，美国不干！”他说，美军会提供帮助。

“Think of it as the new Trump Doctrine for the Middle East,” Richard N. Haass, the former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, who served on the National Security Council and at the State Department during the Persian Gulf War and the Iraq war, wrote on social media.

“可以称之为中东的新特朗普主义，”曾担任外交关系委员会主席、在波斯湾战争和伊拉克战争期间任职于国家安全委员会和国务院的理查德·N·哈斯在社交媒体上写道。

“We broke it, but you own it.”

“事情是我们搞出来的，但这是你们的事情。”

Mr. Trump’s shifting goals continued into Saturday evening. Just a few days ago, he was calling on Israel to avoid targeting Iranian energy sites, for fear it would lead to an escalating round of retaliatory counter-strikes across the Gulf. But on Saturday, he threatened to hit Iran’s power plants if it did not “FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz” within 48 hours.

特朗普不断变化的目标一直持续到周六晚上。就在几天前，他还呼吁以色列避免袭击伊朗的能源设施，担心这会引发海湾地区一轮升级的报复性反击。但周六，他威胁称，如果伊朗不在48小时内“毫无威胁地完全开放霍尔木兹海峡”，就将打击伊朗的发电厂。

He said that U.S. strikes on Iranian plants would start “WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST.” Iran’s biggest plant appears to be its only operating nuclear power plant, at Bushehr. For decades, nuclear power plants have been considered completely off limits for strikes because of the obvious risk of environmental calamity.

他说，美国对伊朗发电厂的打击将“从最大的那个开始”。伊朗最大的发电厂似乎是其唯一在运行的核电站——布什尔核电站。几十年来，由于明显的环境灾难风险，核电站一直被认为是完全禁止打击的目标。

This is not where Mr. Trump expected to be after three weeks of war.

开战三周后，这并不是特朗普设想的局面。

Foreign leaders, diplomats and U.S. officials who have spoken with the president said that in the first week he voiced expectations that Iran would capitulate. That was clear in Mr. Trump’s demand on March 6 for Iran’s “unconditional surrender.”

与总统交谈过的外国领导人、外交官和美国官员表示，在第一周，他曾表示伊朗有望投降。这一点在特朗普3月6日要求伊朗“无条件投降”时就很明显。

The demand was mystifying, said one European diplomat with long experience dealing with Iran, given the country’s competing power centers, its national pride and a Persian state that has existed within the rough boundaries of modern-day Iran, enduring many rises and falls, since the days of Cyrus the Great around 550 B.C.

一位长期与伊朗打交道的欧洲外交官表示，考虑到该国相互竞争的权力中心、其民族自豪感以及这是一个自公元前550年左右居鲁士大帝时代起就在现代伊朗大致边界内存在、历经多次兴衰的波斯国家，这一要求令人费解。

(That demand was also missing from his latest set of objectives. The White House has since said that the president does not expect a surrender announcement from Iran, but that Mr. Trump will determine when Iran has “effectively surrendered.”)

（这一要求也从他最新的目标清单中消失了。白宫此后表示，总统不指望伊朗发表投降声明，但特朗普将决定伊朗何时“实际上已经投降”。）

Iran’s refusal to “cry uncle,’’ as Mr. Trump termed it to reporters on Air Force One, has been only one of the surprises to the president in recent weeks.

正如特朗普在空军一号上对记者所说的那样，伊朗拒绝“认输”，这只是总统最近几周遇到的意外之一。

The first was the crisis in the energy markets, which the International Energy Agency has called “the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.” It has sent Mr. Trump and his aides scrambling. They have promised releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which was only 60 percent full, reflecting a lack of planning. Over the past week the Treasury Department has issued licenses for the delivery of Russian and Iranian oil already at sea. In other words, to calm the markets, the president has approved enriching an adversary that is at war with Ukraine, an American ally, and another that is at war with the United States.

第一个是能源市场的危机，国际能源署称之为“全球石油市场历史上最大的供应中断”。这迫使特朗普及其助手仓促应对。他们承诺动用战略石油储备，但该储备本身就只有60%，反映出规划的缺失。过去一周，财政部已发放许可证，允许交付已在海上的俄罗斯和伊朗石油。换句话说，为了安抚市场，总统批准了向一个与美国盟友乌克兰处于战争状态的对手以及另一个与美国处于战争状态的对手输送资金。

So far, the effects are minimal. Brent crude closed at around $112 a barrel on Friday after the Treasury announcements, and Goldman Sachs warned on Thursday that if ships were reluctant to make their way through the Strait of Hormuz, prices could remain high into 2027.

到目前为止，效果甚微。财政部宣布后，布伦特原油周五收于每桶112美元左右，高盛周四警告称，如果船只不愿通过霍尔木兹海峡，油价可能持续高企至2027年。

The Iranians clearly understand that market chaos is their one remaining superweapon. On Saturday, Tehran warned it could set fire to other facilities in the Middle East. The United States believes the country entered the war with 3,000 or so sea mines — some of which are believed to have been destroyed — and the United States has focused on destroying small boats in the Iranian fleet that are targeting tankers associated with American allies.

伊朗人显然明白市场混乱是他们仅存的超级武器。周六，德黑兰警告称，它可能点燃中东的其他设施。美国认为该国开战时拥有约3000枚水雷——其中一些据信已被摧毁——美国一直专注于摧毁伊朗舰队中那些袭击与美国盟友有关油轮的小型船只。

周四，波斯湾驶向霍尔木兹海峡的货轮。

Mr. Trump’s second surprise was his sudden need for allies. He didn’t imagine it at the beginning of the conflict, the defense minister of one Gulf nation said recently, because he thought the war would be short. But patrolling the strait, and other checkpoints, appears to be a task that could last months or years.

特朗普的第二个意外是他突然需要盟友。一位海湾国家国防部长最近表示，他在冲突开始时没有想到这一点，因为他以为战争会很短。但巡逻海峡和其他检查点似乎是一项可能持续数月或数年的任务。

His third surprise was the absence of any uprising among either the Revolutionary Guards or ordinary Iranians. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the Oval Office this past week “we are seeing defections at all levels as they’re starting to sense what’s going on with the regime.” But American and European intelligence officials say they have no evidence of such defections — even after Israel targeted, and eliminated, Iran’s supreme leader, its top security and intelligence chiefs and many top military officials.

他的第三个意外是革命卫队或普通伊朗人中都没有发生任何起义。财政部长斯科特·贝森特本周在椭圆形办公室表示，“我们看到各个层面都出现了叛逃，因为他们开始意识到政权发生了什么。”但美国和欧洲情报官员表示，他们没有证据表明存在这种叛逃——即使是在以色列瞄准并消灭了伊朗最高领袖、其最高安全和情报负责人以及许多高级军事官员之后。

Military historians will be dissecting this conflict for a long time. But for now it is clear that Iran is a different kind of challenge. Mr. Trump started using the word “excursion” to suggest this is just a short trip, a brief diversion. But there is no real end in sight.

军事历史学家在未来很长一段时间里将继续剖析这场冲突。但就目前而言，很明显伊朗是一种不同类型的挑战。特朗普开始使用“远足”这个词来暗示这只是一次短途旅行，一次短暂的消遣。但这场“远足”看不到真正的尽头。