Source: Foreign Policy
by Howard W French
“Following days of Israeli bombardment of Iran and missiles fired on Tel Aviv and other cities in reprisal by that country, the United States suddenly finds itself on the precipice of direct involvement in another major conflict in the Middle East. Simply knowing the history of American warfare in that region and in countries nearby in the last generation is enough to render this surprising. The United States’ interventions in Iraq were enormously costly in both lives and treasure and left a broken country in their wake that has never fully rebounded. America’s long occupation of Afghanistan ended in abject retreat, having achieved even fewer of its goals and after exacting even higher costs.” (06/18/25)