Over the course of his three campaigns for the White House, President Donald Trump repeatedly ran as a self-proclaimed “candidate of peace” committed to ending wars and staying out of new ones. In one 2016 presidential debate, he called the U.S. invasion of Iraq “a big, fat mistake” and added, “We should have never been in Iraq.”
Trump is now on the verge of breaking all these campaign promises and plunging the United States into an endless war in Iran. That would bog the United States down in the Middle East for decades, even though the region is of diminishing strategic value to U.S. national security.
It’s not too late to avoid such a scenario. Trump has already accomplished much in this new war by destroying most of Iran’s navy, reducing its ballistic missile capabilities and further damaging its nuclear facilities—though those gains have come at a great human and economic toll. Now, it’s time for Trump to take these wins and try to broker a ceasefire.
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