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.The first half-year of the Iran conflict confirmed a hard truth about every American war since Vietnam: Victory is impossible without sustained public support. Once Americans sour on a war effort, political realities constrain leaders from doing what is necessary to win.Operation Epic Fury decapitated senior leadership, degraded ballistic missiles and drones, destroyed the Iranian navy, and hammered economic infrastructure. With sustained maximum pressure and follow-on operations, the regime could have been dislodged. Victory was possible, but it would have required more time, sustained higher costs at the pump, and public endurance that the administration ultimately chose not to demand.
Instead, elevated gas prices and looming midterm elections forced a pivot. Trump downshifted from unconditional Iranian surrender to the more limited goal of reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s regime, indifferent to the suffering of its own people, bet that it could outlast American patience at the pump.And it won that bet. Vice President JD Vance negotiated a lopsided memorandum of understanding that unfroze billions in Iranian assets while delivering neither verifiable denuclearization nor the dismantlement of Tehran’s proxy networks.A chorus of Republican leaders slammed the deal as incoherent and naive. The Iranian regime, they warned, doesn’t read concessions as goodwill — it reads them as weakness to exploit. No amount of money was going to buy them off. Their aims are theological, not transactional. The destruction of America, the Great Satan, and Israel, the Little Satan, is their goal. Money is only a means to those ends.Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) made the case memorably, saying, “History teaches that giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is not a good idea.”Mere weeks later, the critics were proven correct when Iran attacked commercial vessels and tankers in the strait, openly claiming the right to control, restrict, and toll it as its sovereign domain.Trump responded by declaring the ceasefire over, pounding missile and drone sites from the air, and threatening to reimpose a naval blockade with strikes on desalination and electricity plants now reportedly on the table.Gas prices are expected to be variable this summer as the Iran war rages on. (Graphic by Christine Valora/Washington Examiner; photos by AP)
