President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth salute as a U.S. Army carry team moves a transfer case containing the remains of Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad, of Ozone Park, N.Y. Wednesday, July 22, 2026, at Dover Air Force Base, Del. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
It’s about time to accept the notion of “quagmire” relative to the Trump administration’s war with Iran. Poorly conceived and poorly executed by our president and his incompetent political appointees, the war has left us in a situation with no end in sight and the potential for unintended military expansion. The world is already feeling the economic chaos attendant to this war. The threat to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages” has not and will not generate success.
Gen. Curtis LeMay blustered about that with regard to the North Vietnamese decades ago, and it generated no positive military or diplomatic results. That war was foisted upon us by incompetent political leadership as well. We failed to acknowledge the Vietnamese determination and the degree to which they were willing to sacrifice. We couldn’t check the support they received from China and the Soviet Union. In the 20th century alone, the Vietnamese threw out the Japanese, French and Americans. Like the North Vietnamese, Iranian leaders realize they have time on their side.
We’re good at initiating military actions, generally poor at diplomatic actions to achieve our objectives and lousy at propaganda exchanges, especially under President Donald Trump. He couldn’t come up with a better line than bombing Iran back to the Stone Age? The world knows we’re easily worn down on the home front, and that’s happening today. Trump’s mood-management style shows a lack of discipline, an ignorance of history and an underestimation of Iran, and it discounts the value of our career professional staff. He thinks he can intuit his way forward using shallow threats. He is sadly disillusioned. We are now left with his numbing inability to negotiate.
In Iran, we botched the regime change that might have inspired the populace to rise up, and we apparently underestimated Iran’s ability to continue defensive and offensive missile and drone combat despite our bombings. We also apparently failed to factor in Iran’s ability to control the Strait of Hormuz and that element of its negotiating posture. Now, Iran appears dug in for the long haul. It has clear control of the strait and the leverage it provides.
As our costs of the war continue to rise like the spinning dial of a slot machine, we can’t or won’t even impose a temporary dime-a-gallon tax on gas to help pay for it. Of course, we can’t because of the dramatic rise in fuel costs caused by this fiasco. So the costs run up the national debt, for which Republicans can’t seem to accept responsibility or accountability. Given their silence and lack of any shred of congressional responsibility, U.S. Rep. Nick Begich and Sen. Dan Sullivan are clearly wrapped around the axle of Trump’s Iran war.
The initial objectives in the move against Iran were to eliminate the nuclear threat and impose regime change in support of the oppressed Iranian people. Neither has happened. Because of a lack of disciplined political focus and inadequate strategic planning, we are in a quagmire. Our stated objectives are fading away. Adding to the diplomatic mess, this quagmire has stranded thousands of private-sector maritime personnel, thousands more American military personnel and our war-fighting hardware, which is needed elsewhere. Conditions on the USS Lincoln are a mere manifestation of this mess. It’s disconcerting that Trump’s Iran war doesn’t interfere with weekends at Mar-a-Lago or his frequent tee times.
According to Trump, we have won the war with Iran several times. According to reality, we have not won the war, eliminated its nuclear program, imposed regime change or made the Middle East more stable.
Tim Benintendi is a two-year veteran of the Vietnam War and lives in Anchorage.
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