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News Analysis
The opening days of the conflict are challenging the idea that President Trump can project force abroad while safeguarding American lives and the economy.
Luke Broadwater is a White House correspondent. He reported from Washington.
March 5, 2026, 5:03 a.m. ET
As President Trump uses U.S. military force overseas, his calculation has been that he can launch military operations with the loss of few American lives and minimal disruption to the economy.
The opening days of the war in Iran are challenging that assumption.
Already, six Americans have been killed. Gulf allies are under attack. The stock market wobbled. Gas prices are rising. The U.S. military is spending, by some estimates, hundreds of millions of dollars per day. In Iran, an airstrike on a girls’ elementary school killed 175 people, according to local health officials and Iranian state media, and the Trump administration says it is investigating who was responsible.
While no American ground troops have yet been sent to Iranian soil, the administration has not ruled out deploying soldiers. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday suggested the conflict might not be short.
“We are accelerating, not decelerating,” Mr. Hegseth told reporters, adding: “More bombers and more fighters are arriving just today.”
Before deciding to launch a new round of missile strikes against Iran that began on Saturday, Mr. Trump had been emboldened by what his administration views as a string of swift military achievements.
Under Mr. Trump’s leadership, the U.S. military captured Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, in a quickly executed operation; struck Iran’s nuclear facilities in a surprise attack; targeted Houthi militants in Yemen; blew up a succession of suspected drug boats in the Caribbean; and bombed targets in Iraq, Nigeria and Somalia as part of counterterrorism operations.
