Washington isn’t stumbling into another Middle Eastern quagmire — at least, that’s what Vice President J.D. Vance wants the American people to believe.
In a fiery interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, Vance drew a sharp line between the Trump administration and its predecessors. According to him, this wasn’t the "dumb" policymaking of the past — this was a precise, calculated strike aimed squarely at Iran’s nuclear capabilities, not a blueprint for regime change.
“We’re not at war with Iran — we’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program,” he asserted, calling the operation "very precise, very surgical." To those wary of another long, costly conflict, Vance offered this reassurement: “We have no interest in a protracted conflict. We have no interest in boots on the ground.”
He didn’t mince words about prior leaders, adding, "Back then we had dumb presidents, and now we have a president who knows how to accomplish America’s national security objectives."
That said, the door doesn’t seem fully closed on regime change. In a post on Truth Social, Trump pondered aloud why Iran shouldn't be reshaped if its leaders can’t "MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN." Meanwhile, Vance doubled down on a warning for Tehran: any retaliation would be met with "overwhelming force."
Moscow, for its part, was quick to draw parallels between this episode and the infamous Iraq WMD claims that justified the 2003 invasion. "The current situation is essentially no different,” warned Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia. "We are once again being urged to believe in fairy tales in order to once again bring suffering to millions of people living in the Middle East."
With tensions rising and global skepticism growing, one thing is certain — this chapter of the Iran crisis is being shaped by a very different script.
