Escalation Reflects Psychological Difficulty Admitting Failure: The author argues that President Trump is intensifying the war with Iran rather than cutting losses, driven by a reluctance to be seen as a “loser,” a pattern shared by previous U.S. presidents in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

Historical Parallel to Quagmires: Drawing comparisons to Johnson and Nixon in Vietnam, as well as prolonged wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the piece contends that continued escalation rarely recovers lost strategic ground and often prolongs unnecessary costs in lives and resources.

Call for De-escalation and Face-Saving Exit: The recommended course is to end the bombing, declare a political “win,” accept higher oil prices or limited Iranian leverage over the Strait of Hormuz, and withdraw from a conflict the author views as already strategically lost.

President Donald Trump’s renewed escalation of the war on Iran is dangerous and needs to be immediately reversed. Investors in the stock market are often advised to admit they bought an investment lemon and cut their losses by selling, thus avoiding further disaster by riding the stock to the bottom and vainly hoping it will rebound. Given human nature, many investors struggle with the first part: admitting they made a mistake. Politicians involved in losing wars often exhibit similar behavior.

And President Trump, never wanting to be labeled a “loser,” is particularly prone to such psychological denial. He is far from the only American president to experience this affliction, however. In the mid-1960s,........

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