Posted By Tim Hains
On Date March 17, 2026

Victor Davis Hanson weighs in on how the war with Iran is going after two weeks for "The Daily Signal."

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: We’re just completing the second week of the so-called Iran war — this effort of the United States to bomb the theocracy into submission so they will cancel their missile and nuclear programs and to champion the popular protests on the streets that have some potential to get rid of the regime itself.

But it’s a very surreal war. I haven’t seen — I don’t think any of us have seen — anything like it. It’s only been two weeks and we’re told that it’s dragging on, that it’s a forever war, that we’re losing, that the Pentagon and the Trump administration had no plans. And yet when you look at Iran, this huge country — much, much bigger and with a much larger population than Iraq or Afghanistan — it has no military left.

The Navy is dismantled. The Air Force is dismantled. The Republican Guard — all of these special contingents — are under enormous assault. The command and control is destroyed. The missile defense is destroyed. And yet people say that it’s unconquerable. It doesn’t make any sense. Its output of missiles and drones at the Gulf petrol states and Israel has dropped by 90%.

So what’s going on?

I think part of the problem is that there’s no media coverage. There are no embedded reporters there because we are not on the ground. When you don’t have a ground fight in enemy territory, you don’t have American embedded journalists traveling with the troops who can give diverse opinions and accurate accounts.

All we have are the journalists who are allowed into Iran. And that happens to be — guess who — CNN. And they report the party line that comes out of the Iranian theocracy.

Again, an air war is very hard to cover because planes and pilots can’t talk to anybody. They’re at bases that are secluded and secure. They get in the planes, they fly their mission, and they go home. And there’s no way a journalist can really get to them or talk to them.

So all of our information comes from three sources: the Iranian propaganda machine, which is completely not credible — it’s about as credible as the Hamas body count that we saw two years ago — or CNN and a few other Western but very biased news outlets that only Iran will let in, based on the conditions which they impose on them, and the Israelis.

The only thing you can find out about this war that’s official comes from the Israeli government and some Israeli newspapers — the Israel Times or the Jerusalem Post. So there’s a lot of misinformation about the actual damage that we’re inflicting.

Then there’s the attitude toward the war. In World War II, everybody was behind the United States. We did a lot of things that we regretted — the Japanese internment. We made a lot of mistakes strategically. Okinawa and Tarawa were disasters. The B-17 bombing program cost 40,000 lives.

But everybody basically said: we don’t have to be perfect to be good. We’re going to win our war because our cause is better than the alternative.

That’s gone now. It’s gone.

Even in the first Gulf War of 1990–1991, people were united. But the Democratic Party is not the Democratic Party of Bill Clinton. It’s a socialist party — that’s a euphemism. It really does not believe in traditional America. And it believes that if it can convey a sense that America is losing, then two things follow.

For some, it means that the November midterms might give power back to the Democrats, and therefore it’s in their self-interest to magnify the debacle, so to speak, or the tragedy — or the idea that we’re losing.

And then there are others in the Democratic Party — and I’m talking about the Squad — who actually are sympathizing with the enemy.

If you think I’m crazy, there was a protest out in New York where we had resident aliens, students here on student visas, naturalized citizens. And what were they screaming? “Shame on the United States.”

Why were they protesting? And who were they protesting on behalf of? Iran, the Hezbollah terrorists, and the Hamas terrorists.

So this is a very bizarre thing.

And in addition to that, we’ve got the element of antisemitism where the Democratic Party — its base — is just unavowedly antisemitic.

I’ll just make a casual observation. I predict that you will not have a Jewish American presidential candidate or vice-presidential candidate for the foreseeable future. It is impossible to nominate anybody with a Jewish background on a national ticket in the Democratic Party.

And you can see that as the Democrats look at this war. They have bought hook, line, and sinker the idea that Benjamin Netanyahu is pulling the strings of the Donald Trump puppet and tiny Israel is getting us into this war — despite the fact that all seven prior presidents, and Trump himself, said on the record that Iran would not get a nuclear weapon on their watch and that they would take measures to ensure that it didn’t.

None of them did that.

When you look at the first Gulf War, it was 42 days, but only four days were on the ground. It was a magnificent victory, but about 300 people were killed. That was considered amazing at the time.

They overran the country, but it took 42 days to disable it. They left Saddam Hussein in power and had to go back.

That was considered a stellar success. But this is a much more dramatic victory.

We’ve only been here two weeks and the much more formidable enemy is in shambles. And we’re left with just three alternatives.

Either the regime is going to be replaced now or in the next few weeks as the people come out of their homes and see what their country is like and what the theocracy caused.

Or there’s going to be some Venezuelan solution where a strongman comes forward.

Or maybe that won’t happen at all and the United States, under political pressure, will stop.

But if it stops, they have destroyed the Iranian military and its nuclear and missile programs for years. So this was all preferable to the situation pre-war in which Iran was still working on the bomb, still had 3,000 missiles and more drones, and was boasting that anytime it wanted it could close the Strait of Hormuz.

They’ve tried it, and they will not be successful.

Put it all together, this is a surreal war. What is actually happening is not being reported. And there’s an alternate reality that’s been constructed by the left that sees this war as politically advantageous to its agenda to recapture power in the United States.

If it can convince us — the American people — that

A) we’re losing,

B) we may deserve to lose,

C) it’s all Donald Trump’s fault,

then this war will be beneficial in denying him Republican majorities in Congress in about eight months.

( also shown as a video )

realclearpolitics.com/video/2026/03/17/victor_davis_hanson_this_is_a_surreal_war_what_is_actually_happening_in_iran_is_not_being_reported.html