President Trump may think our power over other nations comes just from our might. What the war in Iran should teach him, and all of us, is that our power also comes from other nations believing our might is right.

 

You Can’t Be a Superpower Without Allies

By Oona A. Hathaway

Professor Hathaway teaches law and political science at Yale and is a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the president of the American Society of International Law.

So by all means, denounce this failed Iran war agreement. But the tragedy here is not Trump’s exit from the war but the war itself, and the lesson of history is that when you see a cast of overconfident hawks promising painless victory, beware.

 

Trump Was Right. The War Ended With a Surrender.

By Nicholas Kristof

Opinion Columnist

The possible silver lining for both America and Israel is that the failed Trump-Netanyahu endeavor to destroy Iran’s Islamofascist autocracy might end up saving American and Israeli democracy. Both countries are facing fateful elections — America’s midterms in November and Israel’s national election in the fall. Trump and Bibi, both sinking in the polls, were hoping that a quick win in Iran would propel each of them or their parties to victory.

 

Trump Put His Own Interests Above All in the Iran Deal

By Thomas L. Friedman

Opinion Columnist

The confluence of America’s failure in Iran and Trump’s Temu colosseum should paint a clear picture of decadence, rot and weakness trying to conceal itself behind macho kitsch. This is an administration capable of immense, epic destruction, but unable to create much besides spectacle.

 

A Garish Spectacle of American Decline

By Michelle Goldberg

Opinion Columnist

I’ve grown to hate the phrase “the new right” — even though I’ve often used it myself. There is nothing new about the MAGA right, including its Christian nationalist wing. Its ideas have been tried before, and they have failed before, including in a regime that is rightly remembered by the French as a source of national shame.

 

Christian Nationalism’s Dark Forebears

By David French

Opinion Columnist

Tony Sanchez: Condy is neither intelligent, nor informed, nor rational regarding this illegal, wrong-headed Israeli/US war on Iran. i) Time is not on the US side. Oil prices have been mitigated by reserves which will be functionally exhausted by July. ii) To protect the Jewish state, the US foolishly wasted extremely expensive interceptors and missiles which cannot be quickly replaced. This has left the US and her allies in Asia unable to present a reasonable deterrent to China and her allies. iii) US credibility is in complete shambles. As Friedrich Merz has pointed out Iran's clever use of asymmetric warfare has given it a more practical weapon than a nuke, control of the Strait of Hormuz, Bab-el-Mandeb (applied with the Houthis) and a veto over what the US and Gulf states can do if they want to keep their bases and critical infrastructure. iv) About 8,000 Iranians and Lebanese have been killed illegally and unnecessarily along with about 50,000 seriously wounded and millions forcibly displaced from their homes. This tragedy is not on Callous Condy's Neo-Con radar v) The Pentagon has asked for $200 billion whilst your fuel and grocery bills are increasing. Condy thinks that is a big win! vi) Who knows, apart from the IRGC, exactly what the status of Iran's nuclear program is? Yet Condy pretends to have knowledge of this which she does not. Pure disingenuousness by her! In sum, except for US Neo-Cons like Condy, right-wing Israeli extremists like Ben-Gvir, and IRGC, this has been a debacle!

 

What the U.S. Has Accomplished in Iran

The regime is much weaker, and time is on the side of the U.S. and its allies that want a more stable region.

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By

Condoleezza Rice

June 3, 2026 2:27 pm ET

Has the counter to Bibi Netanyahu's belligerence been war gamed with Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militants stop shipping in Red Sea in support of Hezbollah in Lebanon?

 

War Games and Warnings on Strait of Hormuz Went Unheeded by Trump

Over the past two decades, Iran repeatedly threatened to close down the waterway. President Trump underestimated Iran’s ability to do so.

By Michael Crowley

Reporting from Washington

June 2, 2026