Trump’s Iran War Faces Growing Public Opposition

Back in February, I wondered whether President Trump intended full-on war with Iran, or strikes. I asked, “Does one announce a war at 3 a.m. on a Saturday in a Truth Social Post?” Well, if one thinks the war will be short and swift. In the weeks afterward, Trump gave various short timelines for our adventure in Iran. But, on the night it all began, the White House had done little to nothing to prepare and inform the public, which could only decipher administration intentions from news reports about movements of military equipment into the region. I said that it was “a war without the people,” who were “not prepared to shoulder major risks and sacrifices.” We were, once again, seeming to embark on the very foreign policy neoconservatives had criticized in the 1990s — trying to manage or change a regime from the air. But this time, most neoconservatives were cheering the action. Meanwhile, the public was bewildered by it.

Five months later, the polls show a public that is rendering a verdict and beginning to impose itself on events. The war is now unpopular and hemmed in — not by Congress or constitutional checks, but the people themselves.

About the Author

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is a senior writer at National Review Online.

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Back in February, I wondered whether President Trump intended full-on war with Iran, or strikes. I asked, “Does one announce a war at 3 a.m. on a Saturday in a Truth Social Post?” Well, if one thinks the war will be short and swift. In the weeks afterward, Trump gave various short timelines for our adventure in Iran. But, on the night it all began, the White House had done little to nothing to prepare and inform the public, which could only decipher administration intentions from news reports about movements of military equipment into the region. I said that it was “a war without the people,” who were “not prepared to shoulder major risks and sacrifices.” We were, once again, seeming to embark on the very foreign policy neoconservatives had criticized in the 1990s — trying to manage or change a regime from the air. But this time, most neoconservatives were cheering the action. Meanwhile, the public was bewildered by it.

Five months later, the polls show a public that is rendering a verdict and beginning to impose itself on events. The war is now unpopular and hemmed in — not by Congress or constitutional checks, but the people themselves.