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There are two winners in Iran. Neither one is America.

Oil disruption benefits Russia, as does less U.S. aid for Ukraine. And Iran distracts from China.

By MAX BOOT

Washington Post
March 9, 2026

While the rationales shift, the U.S. remains mired in Middle East quicksand despite decades of efforts to disengage. In 2011, President Barack Obama announced a pivot to “the vast potential of the Asia-Pacific region,” after “a decade in which we fought two wars that cost us dearly, in blood and treasure.” In 2016, Donald Trump argued that “our current strategy of nation-building and regime change is a proven, absolute failure” and vowed to focus on the home front. More recently, he’s been obsessed with the Western Hemisphere.

So much for that: We are now expending more blood and treasure in the pursuit of yet another war of regime change in the Middle East.