On 20 July 2026, I was on “Dialogue Works” talking with the host, Nima Alkhorshid, about why Trump cannot defeat Iran in the war he started on 28 February 2026 and why his continued prosecution of a tit-for-tat strategy is only making a bad situation worse. And he has no escalation option that would not be even worse than the tit-for-tat campaign.
Of course, more and more Americans are coming to recognize the foolishness and recklessness of Trump’s Iran policy. The president is ultimately going to have to back down and go back to the negotiating table — he cannot afford to let this conflict turn into a forever war — where he is going to find the Iranians driving an even harder bargain than they drove in the run-up to the 17 June 2026 Memorandum of Understanding.
Lyndon Johnson was a covert narcissist who acted like a compulsive gambler during the Vietnam War. Unable to cut his losses and admit defeat, he kept doubling down. Donald Trump is an overt narcissist driven by the same dynamic: he cannot lose, and he cannot admit failure. Just like Johnson, he will sacrifice thousands of lives to shield a fragile ego from even the slightest humiliation.
This is precisely why putting these personality types in positions of ultimate power is so dangerous. It’s a very bad idea. You’d think we’d be smarter than that.
Lying about sex or money is bad, but lying about war—and its escalation—is a cardinal sin.
I don’t think the country ever recovered from Vietnam .