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Commentary
Wall Street Journal

Iran Is a Hedgehog, Trump Is a Fox

Conventional wisdom holds that Tehran is winning. Don’t be so sure that’s the case.

walter_russell_mead
walter_russell_mead
Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship
Walter Russell Mead
A US Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II lands aboard the America-class assault ship USS Tripoli during flight operations in the US Central Command area of responsibility on May 30, 2026. (US Marine Corps)
Caption
A US Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II lands aboard the America-class assault ship USS Tripoli during flight operations in the US Central Command area of responsibility on May 30, 2026. (US Marine Corps)

President Trump has not only ended, by his own count, eight wars in his second term. After the current pause in the latest series of American military strikes against Iran, Mr. Trump can also claim to have ended one war at least three times. There has truly never been anything like it.

Nor has there been anything like the military moves and countermoves in the on-again, off-again U.S.-Iran war. As of last Friday morning in Iran, American forces were hitting targets across the country as Mr. Trump warned that worse was to come. But that night no bombs fell, and news broke over the weekend that further military strikes were off the table, at least for the moment.

Read the full article in the Wall Street Journal.