If You Think War Is Unpopular, Wait Till You See Defeat

The Fat Lady has not sung yet. There's plenty of time for Iran and Putin to resolve and the Dems to drive again off a cliff, in time for 2028.

Kate Smith and I will be singing God Bless America tonight at the Lincolnshire Marriot.

If You Think War Is Unpopular, Wait Till You See Defeat

Truman’s lesson for Iran: History often vindicates difficult decisions that exact a political price.

By Tim Sheehy, WSJ

Nov. 10, 2026

I’ll spare you another political postmortem of the Republicans’ drubbing last week. But I feel compelled to make an unpopular argument for an unpopular decision that nonetheless was the right one. Sometimes good politics is bad policy and good policy is bad politics, which brings me to our current fight against Iran.

Some blamed the war for Republicans’ midterm losses, and although exit polling is imperfect, I agree that the conflict and its effect contributed.

War is unpopular. It always has been. So when Beltway mavens lecture us to that effect as if they have discovered some profound political truth, it’s a bit rich. War is expensive, unpredictable and, most important, deadly. It almost always takes longer than planners thought and is deadlier than experts estimated. Donald Trump isn’t the first president to suffer politically from an unpopular war. Ask George W. Bush about Iraq, LBJ about Vietnam, or Harry S. Truman about Korea. That final example is the most salient. In 1950 communist forces from North Korea invaded South Korea, triggering a war that exacted a devastating human and political toll. Only a few years after World War II, Truman, a World War I veteran and no stranger to the brutality of war, made the unpopular decision to send American forces to Korea to prevent the people of the peninsula from falling under the yoke of tyranny.

Americans didn’t want another war. They were tired of overseas combat and wanted to focus on domestic issues. Sound familiar? Truman paid a price in the 1950 midterms, as his opponents made significant gains in Congress and public support for the war deteriorated. But his backbone in prosecuting the war saved half the Korean Peninsula from totalitarianism. The decision’s effects rippled even further geographically and through history. America’s refusal to concede Asia to the Soviets solidified the U.S. position in the Cold War.

I never knew Truman, but I wager that if he could see the thriving democracy and economic powerhouse South Korea has become, compared with the brutal communist dictatorship to its north, he would gladly accept the political cost of doing the right thing.

History often vindicates difficult decisions that were deeply unpopular in their time. Our fight against Iran will prove no different. This isn’t a fight for Israel or Saudi Arabia. It is a fight for Western civilization and the security of American families.

The radical Islamist forces that control Iran and their proxy groups in the region seek the destruction of the U.S. and all Western civilization. They have kidnapped, tortured, murdered and maimed thousands of Americans and many more innocent people worldwide. They will use all weapons at their disposal to blackmail their neighbors, build regional (and eventually global) hegemony, and forge themselves into a world power that can’t be confronted.

For 47 years, Iran’s leaders have bet that they can hold America hostage to its demands, making any attempt to confront the regime so costly that Washington eventually backs down. They misjudged President Trump. From eliminating an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps senior officer in 2020 to targeting Iran’s nuclear program in 2025 and confronting the regime militarily in 2026, Mr. Trump has made tough calls to defend American security. His instincts are correct. The Iranian people will take down this regime as long as we set the conditions for their liberation. Success could end nearly half a century of Iranian aggression that has destabilized the Middle East and cost innocent lives. If we fail, the regime will survive and be stronger than ever—once a Democratic administration and rattled neighbors pivot back to appeasement.

They will hand over billions of dollars that Iran will use to rebuild its economy, replenish its missile and drone arsenals, and restore its global network of terrorist proxies. An emboldened Tehran will again target the U.S. Don’t ask me; ask their Parliament, where chants of “Death to America” are common.

The war is unpopular, but defeat would be far less popular. Three generations of soldiers have fought these barbarians. We owe it to our country and the West not to make it a fourth. It is time to finish the job.

Mr. Sheehy, a Republican, is a U.S. senator from Montana.