Editorial: War Critics Should Give It Time

The conservative editorial page of the Wall Street Journal is tired of all the doomsayers on Iran. In an editorial, the editors argue that many in the media and politics, on both the left and right, are casting the war as a sure disaster. The editorial invokes World War II's bloody Battle of Tarawa in 1943 to contrast what they describe as today's reflexive outrage with 1940s acceptance that costly fighting might be necessary. Today's critics, including "outraged right-wing podcasters," would have been calling for the impeachment of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, they write.

The editors contend the war is "going better than expected," while acknowledging big unknowns—whether Iran's regime falls, what replaces it, or whether a grinding civil war erupts. President Trump also should have better prepared the US for the conflict, in their view. "But now that the war is underway, and our troops are in harm's way, our perhaps old-fashioned view is that we ought to hope for American success, both military and strategic," they write. "The world will be safer if there is a better regime in Tehran that isn't bent on the mission of 'death to America.' And maybe, before anticipating or cheering failure, we could wait and see how it goes." Read the full editorial.