Has the Iran War Been Worth It? I Can’t Know.

Jim Antle offered a pithy summary of the postmortems on Trump 2025–26: “Some people think the is worth the costs. Some people think the are. Trump is nearly alone in thinking both are. Voters think neither are.” I would add that it was who is responsible for deciding not to involve Congress or the public in either decision. Even if you like one or both policies, that now looks like an obvious, indefensible blunder of immense proportions.

It ought to be clear, and equally admitted by all, that both tariffs and the Iran war were politically costly. Has the war been worth it? My problem is, I still don’t know. In part, I don’t know because we haven’t seen yet how it ends. If the war pushes the Iranian regime at some point over the next few years into the dustbin of history where it so richly deserves to end, it will have been worth quite a lot. But the Trump administration has never announced regime change as a war aim and has not pursued the war as if it was a war aim. So that part is completely speculative.

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Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute.

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Jim Antle offered a pithy summary of the postmortems on Trump 2025–26: “Some people think the is worth the costs. Some people think the are. Trump is nearly alone in thinking both are. Voters think neither are.” I would add that it was who is responsible for deciding not to involve Congress or the public in either decision. Even if you like one or both policies, that now looks like an obvious, indefensible blunder of immense proportions.

It ought to be clear, and equally admitted by all, that both tariffs and the Iran war were politically costly. Has the war been worth it? My problem is, I still don’t know. In part, I don’t know because we haven’t seen yet how it ends. If the war pushes the Iranian regime at some point over the next few years into the dustbin of history where it so richly deserves to end, it will have been worth quite a lot. But the Trump administration has never announced regime change as a war aim and has not pursued the war as if it was a war aim. So that part is completely speculative.