There is good news and there is bad news.

The good news is that the United States and Israel, led by President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have taken decisive military action against Iran. For decades, Iran’s regime has financed terror proxies across the Middle East, threatened Israel’s destruction, and advanced toward nuclear capability. Confronting that threat was never going to be easy.

Neither Washington nor Jerusalem has clearly articulated a coherent strategic plan for what comes next.

Military force can destroy targets. It cannot, by itself, produce lasting security. That requires strategy — clear political goals, measurable objectives, and a vision for what the region should look like once the fighting stops.

So far, that vision is still unclear.

History offers ample warning. The United States entered Iraq in 2003 with overwhelming military superiority but an unclear political end state. Israel has faced similar dilemmas in Lebanon and Gaza: tactical victories that did not translate into durable strategic outcomes. Without defined goals, even successful military operations risk becoming the opening act of a prolonged........

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