The conflict between the U.S. and Iran has escalated into open confrontation, with operations intensifying near the Strait of Hormuz. What began in early 2026 as tit‑for‑tat exchanges has hardened into a grinding confrontation — one driven less by strategic necessity than by presidential ego and the fantasy of dismantling Iran’s Islamic Revolution. It is a war shaped by one man’s impulses, not by national deliberation. And it is a war the United States cannot win.
The question that echoes is simple: Did the United States learn nothing from Vietnam?
Back then, Washington believed overwhelming military power could bend another nation’s political identity to American will. Leaders assumed that superior firepower, economic pressure, and righteous rhetoric would force capitulation. Instead, the United States found itself trapped in a conflict defined by miscalculation, hubris, and a catastrophic misunderstanding of the nature of national resistance. Today, Donald Trump is repeating that same mistake — with Iran becoming the proving ground for an old and dangerous delusion.
In fact, we are seeing this dynamic play out globally. Much like Russia’s catastrophic miscalculation in Ukraine, the U.S. is falling into the trap of assuming that technical military dominance equates to political control. Both conflicts reveal the persistent arrogance of great powers that underestimate the will of nations they view as "lesser" military adversaries. They ignore that resistance is rarely just about hardware; it is about the deep historical and cultural roots that bind a population against outside intervention.
This is particularly true regarding Iran. To view this conflict purely through the lens of modern military capability is to ignore a national psyche forged in centuries of struggle against external domination. Iran’s resistance is not merely a product of the current regime; it is a manifestation of a long history of national identity defined by defiance of outside interference. When great powers fail to respect the cultural and historical weight of this resolve, they almost always fail to achieve their political objectives.
The Trump administration’s circumvention of Congress has deepened the danger. By repeatedly bypassing the legislative branch on war powers, the president has triggered legal battles over whether military engagements can be sustained without explicit congressional authorization. This pattern of executive overreach cuts directly against the checks and balances the founders designed to prevent unilateral wars of choice.
This isn't just about foreign policy; it is a profound threat to domestic democratic health from foreign influence. When a president normalizes the launch of unilateral war-making, the precedent bleeds into domestic governance. We see the cost in the erosion of public debate on matters of peace and war, and in the dangerous conflation of foreign conflict with domestic election rules. As Democracy Docket has noted, the administration has used "foreign interference" — including threats from Iran — as a pretext to restrict voting machines and ban mail‑in ballots. The message is clear: if the executive can bypass democratic consent abroad, it is only a matter of time before the same impulse erodes democratic processes at home.
To reclaim our republic, we must move beyond critique and toward concrete action.
First, Congress must reassert its constitutional authority over war powers. This requires not just rhetoric, but the immediate exercise of the power of the purse to demand transparency and force a legislative debate on the scope of current operations. Lawmakers must initiate rigorous oversight hearings that compel the administration to justify its strategy beyond broad, ideological claims.
Second, citizens must elevate this issue to a top-tier civic priority. Reclaiming our war powers requires a robust public-pressure campaign. Americans should demand that their representatives make their stance on unilateral war-making a central issue in the coming legislative cycle. When we demand that our local representatives publicly sign onto resolutions requiring congressional authorization for any military engagement, we force the conversation back into the daylight of democratic deliberation.
This November, the midterm elections represent more than a choice between parties; they are a referendum on the Trump administration's right to act without consent. When voters head to the polls, they are not just selecting representatives; they are demanding a check on executive overreach, the restoration of the Election Assistance Commission, and an end to using foreign conflict as a pretext to weaken our domestic voting infrastructure.
This moment demands a shift from passive observation to active engagement. The Trump administration’s approach to Iran — its reliance on threats, its misreading of resistance, and its conflation of foreign policy with domestic election tampering — is what happens when leaders forget that power must be tempered by wisdom.
The founders built a republic on the understanding that the strength of a nation lies not only in its armies, but in the resilience of its people and the integrity of its institutions. Vietnam taught us that wars built on ego and historical blindness end in tragedy. Ukraine is teaching Russia that lesson now. And Iran is teaching us that same lesson again. We have the tools to stop this drift; the only question is whether the American public has the will to use them.
Hugo Balta is the executive editor of The Fulcrum and the publisher of the Latino News Network
Americans across the political spectrum have continued to ask about the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s connections among the political elite. (Angela Weiss/AFP)
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks to voters at a town hall at the Elks Lodge 188 on June 7, 2026, in Portland, Maine.
McConnell and Platner both feel entitled
The two men could not be more different. One, a Republican, octogenarian, seven-term Southern senator, the other a progressive, millennial Maine oysterman who’s never spent a day in elected office.
But Mitch McConnell, the senior senator from Kentucky who’s been MIA for the past few weeks and Graham Platner, the Maine Senate candidate who’s facing calls to drop out of his race against Sen. Susan Collins, apparently do have something in common: an outsized sense of entitlement.
McConnell, who is 84 and not running for reelection, has been hospitalized for three weeks, and yet we still don’t fully know what he was admitted for or what his condition is. Per CNN, “his office has not disclosed a medical reason for the hospitalization or provided specifics on his health status beyond saying last week that he ‘continues to improve’ and ‘is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters.’ ”
While several legislators have said they’ve talked to him and insist he sounds strong, others have said they are completely in the dark. One MAGA influencer, Laura Loomer, posted ”High level source close to the White House tells me ‘Mitch McConnell is officially brain dead. He’s not coming back.’ ”
Meanwhile, up in Maine, Platner has been artfully dodging calls from his own party to drop out of his race after several allegations of misconduct from women, including a sexual assault allegation from a former girlfriend, came to light. While Platner, who has managed to survive a Nazi-tattoo scandal, a sexting scandal, and several old tweets scandals, denies the allegations, he has not quit.
High-profile Democrats including Sens. Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer, the latter of whom had unsuccessfully hand-selected Maine Gov. Janet Mills to face Collins instead of Platner, have urged Platner to drop out, while other Dems have accused him of trying to influence the picking of his replacement.
Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson released a statement Tuesday, which said in part:
“Unfortunately, Graham Platner’s team has repeatedly reached out to us in an attempt to put their thumb on the scale of what this process looks like. We have repeatedly reiterated to Graham Platner’s team that they have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate nor in determining what this process looks like.”
Both incidents show a deep lack of accountability to voters, who in one case deserve to know whether their senator is capable of performing his duties, and in another deserve a candidate who isn’t being accused of crimes, bigotry and deception.
The offensive and odious entitlement of both McConnell and Platner stands out not because it is particularly unique among today’s political class. Tom Kean, the New Jersey GOP congressman, missed more than 100 votes, only sharing after a three-month mystery absence that he was dealing with depression.
Former President Joe Biden’s Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin failed to disclose a hospitalization for prostate cancer surgery, flouting the established rules for Cabinet members and senior U.S. officials.
From Biden’s insistence on running for reelection despite his obvious cognitive and political weaknesses to Trump’s brazen flouting of laws and norms, few politicians seem to appreciate that their public service job comes with responsibilities to constituents, including transparency and honesty.
But both parties increasingly justify the chicanery, because the stakes of winning elections and keeping power are simply too high. But that’s no excuse. If we’ve learned anything over the past decade, it’s that character and accountability do, in fact, matter. And when we, the voters, stop caring about it, well, so do they.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.