America in Retreat

“Good morning. Isaias is now the first Atlantic hurricane of the season. It’s headed for the Gulf Coast.

 

There’s more news, including a story about which college degrees are the most lucrative. (English isn’t one of them.) First, though, let’s talk about the war with Iran.

 

In retreat

 

The war against Iran was meant to be a projection of American power, another example of the U.S. military’s reach. American forces had already destroyed three Iranian nuclear sites last year and snatched President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela out of his compound in Caracas. President Trump called the conflict a brief “excursion” into the Middle East to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. A little more than a week into it, he said the war’s objectives were “pretty well complete.”

 

Seven months or so later, there are not many people saying that. As my colleagues David Sanger and Eric Schmitt report, the war has repeatedly constrained U.S. power rather than enhanced it.

 

Take this past weekend’s hasty withdrawal of a dozen B-1 bombers from an air base in Britain. Not a big deal, the administration said at first: If you hear of a threat, it’s good to be cautious. We move these planes around all the time. Not difficult! (Except, as Eric reported, it’s pretty difficult.)

 

On Monday, British and American officials described that threat: specific and credible information that operatives backed by Iran were planning to launch drone strikes against the planes and U.S. troops from right outside the air base’s fence.

 

To anyone watching the war closely — and that’s David and Eric — the operation that brought the planes back to their bases in the United States “was another glaring example of how, time after time, Mr. Trump and his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, have been forced into retreat, pulling back military forces that had been deployed to the Middle East and Britain as a deterrent.”

 

That matters, they say, because such retreats tell the Iranians that they can make a superpower turn tail.

 

A battlefield transformed

 

Iran’s drones have already altered how the Pentagon thinks about its vulnerabilities. It’s not enough to keep forces out of missile range now. Drones and cyberweapons can be deployed almost anywhere, reshaping the concept of the battlefield.

 

Yes, the United States obliterated Tehran’s navy at the start of the war. Its air force, too. And a U.S. naval blockade has battered Iran’s economy. But, as David and Eric write:

 

That has not stopped the Iranians from forcing American aircraft and personnel to flee their once-secure bases — farther and farther from Iran. American personnel were evacuated from bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, all of which were within Iranian missile and drone range. Some of those bases were so badly damaged that inside the Pentagon there is little interest in rebuilding them; they will be moved farther away, if Congress grants the funding.

 

All of which makes it hard for the United States to look like the foremost power in the world. American forces can still send bombers to their targets abroad, but they will now need to fly from home soil, which takes time and a lot of fuel. (Also, they’re running low on missiles.) Carrier groups can still patrol the region, but the sailors can’t secure supplies from a base in Bahrain, because Iran destroyed it.

 

The naval supply chain now runs to Diego Garcia, an island in the Indian Ocean more than 2,000 miles away. To get there requires weeks of sea time and, once more, a lot of fuel. The costs mount.

 

An independent press

 

The administration sees things very differently, of course. Out on the campaign trail for the midterm elections, Trump has said Iran is on the brink of collapse. Last week, he said the war would fold up “right after the election.”

 

David and Eric were particularly bracing about the distance between their reporting and Trump’s position. They write of the president: “Any description of Iranian progress, he insists, is ‘fake news,’ promulgated by news organizations that are writing about munitions shortages and other setbacks because they are disloyal to the country.”

 

Fact check: False.” [1]

 

1. America in Retreat. Sifton, Sam.  New York Times (Online) New York Times Company. Oct 8, 2026.