How to End the Iran War

As Washington and Tehran trade messages in search of yet another cease-fire, the Trump administration must revisit the faulty assumptions that got it stuck in a costly war in the first place. The administration has repeatedly fallen prey to the sunk cost fallacy. In the face of this strategic failure, President Donald Trump has mostly acted as if the problem were one of scale or duration. In reality, U.S. negotiating leverage has diminished as the war has progressed and will likely continue to erode as the United States exhausts its munitions and domestic political consequences mount. New Houthi attacks on Saudi oil exports add precarity to a war that has already induced global economic shocks, damaged U.S. credibility, and put America’s regional allies in the middle of a conflict they adv