The latest U.S. operations against Iran’s coastal regions, now extending through eight consecutive nights of strikes, follow a nearly forty-day conflict earlier this year and the collapse of a fragile diplomatic framework. The Trump administration initially presented that war as a swift and decisive success. Yet Washington did not convert battlefield gains into a durable political outcome. Iran retained substantial leverage over the Strait of Hormuz, and the fourteen-point Tehran-Washington memorandum of understanding failed to establish the balance Washington had expected. The gap between military claims and political results soon generated pressure at home. The agreement drew sharp criticism from Republican lawmakers and conservative commentators, pro-Israel groups, and hawkish politicians. That backlash did not alone determine the administration’s next move, […]