Foreign Affairs Editor’s Spotlight
Foreign Affairs Editor's Spotlight
Foreign Affairs Editor's Spotlight

July 25, 2026  |  View in Browser

 

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Good morning,

 

“Trump’s war on Iran has raised the haunting specters of interventions past,” wrote Lawrence Freedman in May. Although today’s war is not quite the quagmire that Afghanistan, Iraq, or Vietnam eventually became, the president is nonetheless “finding it very hard to extricate the United States from a conflict that he has good reason to regret.” Freedman makes a compelling case that, by trying to avoid the mistakes of previous “forever wars,” Trump has fallen into a different kind of trap. 

 

Until next week,

Dan Kurtz-Phelan

Editor, Foreign Affairs

Dan Kurtz-Phelan

Editor, Foreign Affairs

 

Iran and the Forever War Trap

In Trying to Avoid a Quagmire, America Found a Dead End

By Lawrence D. Freedman

Iran and the Forever War Trap

In Trying to Avoid a Quagmire, America Found a Dead End

By Lawrence D. Freedman

 

P.S. In case you missed the podcast this week, my interview with Salam Fayyad is available here.

P.S. In case you missed the podcast this week, my interview with Salam Fayyad is available here.

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