President Donald Trump speaks at the swearing-in ceremony for Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin in the Oval Office on Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (Doug Mills/The New York Times) By JAMELLE BOUIE If you can set aside both the unconstitutionality and the immorality of President Donald Trump’s unprovoked war on Iran and focus on the operation itself, it is hard not to be bewildered by the utter lack of real planning, or even basic strategic thinking, that has gone int

A woman looks out from the broken windows of her apartment, hit by airstrikes, in Tehran, Iran, March 21, 2026. The United States and Israel have been waging a huge air assault against Iran, and the Pentagon has requested $200 billion (more than $1,400 per American household) to fund the war. (Arash Khamooshi/The New York Times) By NICHOLAS KRISTOF Let’s ponder for a moment the vast sums that we’re pouring into the war with Iran. The Pentagon has requested $200 billion (more

Watching the first part of Bad Bunny’s halftime show “conjured up memories of early mornings in Puerto Rico walking alongside abuela through the field to harvest the day’s meals,” writes Ivan Waldo. (Photo provided courtesy of the author) By IVAN WALDO Special to The STAR I was one of 135 million who tuned into Super Bowl LX for the evening’s real event, Benito’s halftime show. I watched intently as he passed through the creatively improvised cane field. It conjured up memori

Whatever short-term gain the president thinks he is getting by lying about the war in Iran is far exceeded by the cost, for him, the country and the world. (Rebecca Chew/The New York Times) By THE EDITORIAL BOARD From his first announcement of the attack on Iran on Feb. 28, President Donald Trump has issued a stream of falsehoods about the war. He has said Iran wants to engage in negotiations, though its government shows no sign of it. He has claimed that the United States “d

President Donald Trump disembarks from Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Md., after attending a dignified transfer ceremony at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (Eric Lee/The New York Times) By NICHOLAS KRISTOF The ongoing debate about whether the Iran war will become a quagmire misses the point. President Donald Trump and America are already in one. Yes, Trump can stop bombing Iran, but Iran might continue to block oil from passing through the S

Children prepare to bed down for the night in an underground parking garage that serves as a bomb shelter in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (Avishag Shaar-Yashuv/The New York Times) By BRET STEPHENS For most of the postwar era, the United States has gone to war with partners whose military contributions ranged from moderately helpful to mainly symbolic. Britain in Afghanistan and Iraq comes to mind in the first case. Germany in the 1999 Kosovo war comes to mind in the s

A couple stands in the ruins of their apartment after an airstrike in Tehran, Iran, March 15, 2026. “President Donald Trump went to war against Iran without explaining his strategy to the American people or the world. It now appears that he may not have had much of a strategy at all,” writes the Times editorial board. (Arash Khamooshi/The New York Times) By THE EDITORIAL BOARD President Donald Trump went to war against Iran without explaining his strategy to the American peop

President Donald Trump disembarks from Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Sunday, March 15, 2026, after a trip to Palm Beach, Fla. (Eric Lee/The New York Times) By NICHOLAS KRISTOF Suppose Iran dispatched operatives to Mexico, where, from the Texas border, they fired a missile at an American base and, unintentionally but carelessly, demolished a nearby American school, killing 175 people. What if they then blew up fuel depots, showering a chemical

Plumes of smoke rise from an oil storage facility after overnight strikes by U.S. and Israeli forces in Tehran, Iran, March 8, 2026. “However incapable the [Iranian] regime may be of defending its airspace, it remains terrifyingly capable of killing its people,” Times columnist Bret Stephens writes. (Arash Khamooshi/The New York Times) By BRET STEPHENS The most famous query in the history of modern warfare came from David Petraeus, then a major general, in an interview with R

A detail of Justice and History, a sculpture in the Senate wing of the Capitol, on Jan. 30, 2026. (Aleksey Kondratyev/The New York Times) By THE EDITORIAL BOARD The four law firms that last year chose to fight President Donald Trump’s illegal intimidation campaign won at least temporary vindication this week. Federal judges had already struck down Trump’s executive orders trying to punish the firms for representing or employing people he considered to be his political enemies