Noonan: Amid Iran Uncertainty, One Move Is Clear

"The price a government or party pays for being dramatically wrong can have foreign-policy reverberations that last generations," writes columnist Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal. She's referring to the "epochal" year of 2003, when the US blundered into war with Iraq. Two decades later, President Trump now faces the equally "epochal" decision of whether to join Israel's attack on Iran, and the shadow of Iraq is everywhere. When Tucker Carlson—who is in the camp that wants the US to steer clear—sparred with Sen. Ted Cruz, he accused the senator of knowing nothing about the nation he wants to topple. It reminded Noonan of the questions that were raised—and ultimately ignored—in the leadup to the Iraqi war.

Noonan isn't sure what the right decision is on Iran—and she suggests that nobody else does, either—but she sees one certainty in the debate: "Congress should be involved." A bipartisan measure has been introduced to forbid any hostilities with Iran unless Congress approves, and Noonan thinks Trump would be smart to back it. If nothing else, it would give him political cover should the US join Israel only to see things go sideways. "There's little chance it will pass but it would be a good thing if it did," she writes. "In unstable times it would add a note of stability—of a nation, as opposed to one man, deciding." (Read the full essay.)