Three weeks into a war he launched against Iran, Donald Trump stood before cameras this week and declared the campaign was, in effect, already over. The contradiction at the heart of America’s Iran war — between the triumphalist rhetoric from the White House and the grinding, costly reality on the ground — has revived an uncomfortable parallel that haunts Washington’s foreign policy establishment: the spectre of Iraq and Afghanistan. That question — and the absence of a clear answer — defines the most consequential foreign policy moment of Trump’s second term. As recently as 2019, he was categorical: “The worst mistake the United States ever made was going into the Middle East. And Iran, by the account of Trump’s own intelligence chief, is still standing.

Source: Daily News Egypt March 23, 2026 15:32 UTC