Is Iran Really a ‘Forever War’? 60%
By Josh Marshall74%
7/22/2026, 8:03:29 PM
Keywords: Editors Blog, The Backchannel
BS Summary: This article contains 19 faulty reasoning types, including Ambiguity (Equivocation), Framing Effect, and Pessimism Bias, with Biased Writer Voice as the most egregious example at 32% saturation with 80 hits. Analysis detected 490 faulty-reasoning hits from 250 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 55.7% and a BS Rank of 60% (8,892 of 21,769 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 59.20% of the article peer group.
With the United States and Iran now clearly back to “war” from “ceasefire,” we’re seeing a host of stories arguing that President Trump, despite all his promises, has found his own “forever war.”
It's a tempting claim, especially for Trump's critics.
But we shouldn't jump too easily into it without recognizing how profoundly different the situations are.
For the United States, Iraq and Afghanistan were fundamentally occupations.
In both cases, existing governments were rapidly shattered or melted away.
The U.S. began occupations in which it stood up new, friendly governments which it hoped would eventually be able to stand on their own with the pro-U.S. friendliness intact.
The U.S. eventually tired of the conflicts and withdrew its forces.
Mostly.
The present situation is entirely different.
The Iranian government is wholly intact and continues to fight the U.S. in an asymmetric but still conventional manner.
Early U.S. hopes that the shock of the conflict would lead the Iranian government to crumble were quickly dashed.
The U.S. has made no effort overthrow the Iranian government by force or even to occupy any of its territory.
Even now, with the two sides back in active conflict, there is little evidence that the new attacks have any strategic goal beyond inflicting pain to shape some future negotiation.
Both sides appear to be inflicting damage and pain with the hope that the other side will relent, soften their negotiating position or give up, but with little evidence either will.
Speakers
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Analysis
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