In Focus delivers deeper coverage of the political, cultural, and ideological issues shaping America. Published daily by senior writers and experts, these in-depth pieces go beyond the headlines to give readers the full picture. You can find our full list of In Focus pieces here.Over the weekend, Iran fired ballistic missiles at northern Israel. President Donald Trump’s response was to call Benjamin Netanyahu and tell him not to shoot back.“The Iranian strikes didn’t hurt anybody,” Trump told Channel 12. “If Bibi strikes them back, it’s just going to keep going.”
He added that a final deal is close and he doesn’t want it blown up by what’s happening right now.
We are now in the 10th week of a two-week ceasefire. Iran has suspended negotiations, fired on Kuwait, Bahrain, and now Israel, and it is demanding $36 billion in unfrozen assets as the price of talking. The administration’s answer is to restrain its most capable ally and wait for a deal that Tehran’s own military commander has spent months making impossible.
The question nobody in Washington seems willing to ask is the one that demands an answer: Did anyone think this through before we started it? Wars against resilient adversaries such as Iran require not just military strikes but a clear, sustained explanation of why they matter to the public. That case was never made.
