Mission creep has stymied U.S. presidents in the Middle East and beyond, and now the escalation of President Donald Trump’s military operation in Iran has left him with no clear off-ramp as congressional Democrats lambaste his command of the war.
The commander in chief and his top war aides initially tried selling his decision to join Israel in its bombardment of the Islamic Republic as an undertaking focused on Iran’s drone and missile arsenals, crippling its military manufacturing base and ensuring it could never field a nuclear weapon.
But mission creep appeared on Feb. 28, the first day of the month-old conflict, when air strikes killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader since 1989. Trump immediately found himself overseeing what foreign policy experts have called a “regime change” operation. The focus on Iran’s military stores and nuclear program quickly expanded, with Trump declaring that he wanted to helm the driver’s seat in choosing the country’s next top leader.
