The Trap of Time in Iran

| published September 5, 2026 |

By Bob Armstrong, Thursday Review contributor

A few days ago, on September 2, Thursday Review noted that the cost of the war in Iran is increasing, there seems to be no end to the conflict, and, most alarming, the United States might be running out of ammo: "The U.S. military has depleted its stockpile to dangerously low levels."

I agree, but with reservations. Our military industrial complex has demonstrated since the end of the Cold War we're pretty good at ramping up production of bombs, bullets, and new toys like drones. As I see it, the greater problem is a shortage of time, not a shortage of weaponry. Time is the big killer in war. Americans do not like long wars, especially since many of us have lived through the long war in Vietnam (10 years) and the longest war in Iraq and Afghanistan (20 Years).

President Trump gets this, but also gets caught in the time trap. "We are going to hit them extremely hard," he said in early April, "we're going to bring them back to the stone ages, where they belong." In order to that he needs more than air power and bluster. He needs troops on the ground. He doesn't want to go there, nor do Dems, the GOP, the military, the anti-war activists, and about 90% of the voters in the upcoming mid-terms. Worse still, the dreams of a quick, short war never seem to die. At the outset in early March Trump spoke of a "four to five weeks" war with Iran. About the same time, in the "Round Table" discussion in the Sunday New York Times, columnist Bret Stephens, whom I greatly admire, stepped in it: "We are less than two weeks into a war that will almost surely be over by the end of the month and already there are predictions that it's 'another Iraq.'"

Where might those predictions come from? Two main sources: the press and the progressives.

A word often used to describe the wars in Vietnam and in Iraq & Afghanistan is back in the news: Quagmire. Check out these headlines in newspapers, mags and web sites over the first two months of the war, from February 28 when the war started through the end of April:

The Atlantic magazine—The Real Intelligence Failure in Iran: A costly quagmire was predictable. Trump went to war anyway.

East Asia Times—Strait of Hormuz Quagmire: Why Trump & U.S. Military Face Difficult Choices to End the Iran War.

ForeignPolicy.pk (Pakistan)—Iran Will Escalate: Why U.S. Military Strikes Risk a Quagmire.

Asia Times—Quagmire fears surge as Trump weighs "Final Blow" options.

Centre Daily Times on Yahoo News—Trump’s Iran quagmire looks disturbingly familiar.

Raw Story on MSN—Trump seen as ''thrashing around for ideas" to escape Iran quagmire.

Project Syndicate web site—Trump’s Iran Quagmire Could Sink America.

Middle East Institute—Trump Brings America Closer to a Quagmire in Iran with No Clear End in Mind.

As would be expected, the New York Times leads the pack warning of doom, gloom and defeat. Columnist David French says Trump is caught in a quagmire only a "military miracle" can resolve. Not to be outdone, his op-ed brother at the paper of record, Nicholas Kristof, announced on March 18 that the "The ongoing debate about whether the Iran war will become a quagmire misses the point. President Trump and America are already in one.”

Who else knew the quagmire could arrive so fast? Kristof's fellow progressives. For them, the word "quagmire" is gold. And they do have some back-up. The long war and the longest war were indeed quagmires. Then, and now with Iran, the progressive will say he only wanted to warn us, send us a wake-up call before it is too late. That may be true, but what the progressive fails to admit is that the quagmire in Vietnam, Iraq, or the one we are "already in" is not his nightmare but his rapturous wet dream. Old Glory getting trampled on again is almost as erotic as free love from a hippie chick. The more bare and blistered tan feet of the multitudes stomping on an American flag, the better. The progressives not only want a quagmire, they want defeat.



Bob Armstrong is a journalist and writer, and the author of a new memoir, No Exit From Vietnam, available on Amazon; Armstrong is a frequent contributor to Thursday Review, and his writing has also appeared in the Washington Examiner.

Related Thursday Review articles:

Pentagon Requests Weapons Production Increase; By Thursday Review staff; September 2, 2026.

Saving Lives in War; By Bob Armstrong, Thursday Review contributor; May 18, 2026.