In Iran, Winning Is the Only Thing

It comes down to victory in Iran. The Democrats don’t matter. Nor do the Republicans. Or NATO, or other U.S. allies. Pope Leo XIV is at best a footnote. All that now matters for this president is that the U.S. prevails and the Islamic Republic ceases to be a menace to America and its interests.

The president seems to get it. His legacy, it is now clear, will rest on whether his war against Iran succeeds or fails. And that success hinges on whether Iran remains a threat not only to Israel but to our Sunni Arab friends, who have their own reasons for wanting Iran defanged.

If, however, depriving Iran of the means to threaten the U.S. and its friends in the region is the true measure of our success, we won’t know for at least a decade whether we have succeeded. We Americans have short memories, as our enemies realize. At least since Vietnam, they have assumed we aren’t in it for the long haul. They have more staying power than we do, they think, and Iran has more staying power than most, not least because it can count on proxies like Hezbollah. Iran’s government, after all, has endured waves of devastating attacks by U.S. and Israeli military forces but remains defiant.

Even as President Trump threatens Iranian bridges and power plants, he constantly exhorts the Iranians to negotiate. The president sees himself as a deal maker above all else. That is why many who support his Iran policy still believe that he’ll cut a deal, bring the troops home, and declare peace in our time.

Maybe. Mr. Trump says many things, but not all of it is meant literally. In the movie “Patton,” a military aide to George C. Scott’s Patton says—after the general’s latest outburst—that sometimes the men don’t know when he’s acting and when he’s not.

“It isn’t important for them to know,” Patton replies. “It’s only important for me to know.” Mr. Trump is a bit like that.

When this columnist was chief speechwriter for George W. Bush, Iraq was the focus of the war—but Iran was never far from our thoughts. Iran killed many U.S. troops in Iraq through its support of anti-American Shiite militias, to which it provided improvised explosive devices. I remember, as far back as 2007, sitting at my colleague’s desk and debating which sentence was stronger: “Iran will not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons” or “Iran must not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons.”

Today that debate has been exhausted. All the

talk—the headlines, the back and forth over the Strait of Hormuz, the complaints about Israel taking on Hezbollah, etc.—have become background music. President Trump has put the mullahs on their heels. Now is the

Trump’s critics can’t cheer for American victory because it brings him credit.

time to make sure the U.S. doesn’t squander these gains and let the Iranians come back and do it all over again.

This rankles American establishments. There is no one “establishment” anymore, of course. But there is a Republican establishment, a Democratic establishment, a mainstream media establishment, a Hollywood establishment, and so on. On Mr. Trump they all agree: They can’t stand him, and they want him to fail more than they want America to succeed.

Look at poor Thomas Friedman. He is about as establishment as it gets, writing a foreign-affairs column for the New York Times with three Pulitzer Prizes to his credit. And he hates Donald Trump.

But give Mr. Friedman his due. One thing that sets him apart is that he’s willing to speak openly about his bias and the untenable position it puts him in.

During a recent appearance on CNN, he told host Michael Smerconish that he was torn because he really wants to see Iran defeated. “Nothing would improve the region more,” he said, “than the replacement of this regime with a regime in Iran that was focused on enabling its people to realize their full potential and integrating peacefully with other countries and stop occupying Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.”

But here’s the rub. “The problem is I really don’t want to see Bibi Netanyahu or Donald Trump politically strengthened by this war, because they are two awful human beings,” he said.

And there you have the twisted logic of the Hate Trump chorus: Because they are more worried about Donald Trump getting credit for bringing down a murderous regime, they can’t look forward to the liberation of millions of people.

“IT’S TIME FOR THE IRAN KILLING MACHINE TO END!” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. He’s right, and his administration will be judged by whether this is the real end or just a temporary interlude.

Write to mcgurn@wsj.com.

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By William McGurn