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On Newsmax’s Sunday Agenda, University of Chicago professor Robert Pape delivered a blunt warning: Beijing is betting that a widening U.S. campaign in Iran will bog American forces down and distract Washington from the real strategic contest in Asia. Pape argued the conflict has slid into a “zero-sum” dynamic that favors patient adversaries rather than quick American victories, a sobering assessment many in Washington would rather ignore.
That assessment stands in stark contrast to hawkish voices like Gordon Chang and retired Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt, who have pushed for sustained, aggressive pressure on Tehran as the only credible path to victory. Chang and Holt tell Americans what they want to hear — that force and bluster alone will produce regime collapse — but their prescriptions risk dragging our troops and treasury deeper into a fight with no clear exit.
Professor Pape’s sober point is not alarmism; it’s hard-earned realism. Iran has shown it can employ asymmetric tools to inflict pain and prolong conflict even if the U.S. targets energy infrastructure, and prolongation plays into the hands of adversaries who can wait us out. Americans who care about results should question whether repeated strikes and escalation will actually protect our interests or simply ratchet up costs at home.
Conservatives should be the first to reject wishful thinking — and the first to insist on a coherent strategy. That means defining political objectives, preserving American military readiness, and refusing to let our foreign policy be animated by moral theatrics or the latest talking head. If we fail to match ends with means, the predictable result is not glory but grinding attrition and domestic blowback that weak politicians will exploit.
Worse still, Beijing is quietly calculating how to benefit from American overreach. Analysts note China’s interest in ensuring its energy supplies and commercial ties survive any turmoil, and Beijing is likely watching Washington for signs of exhaustion it can exploit. A prolonged U.S. entanglement hands China leverage — not because Beijing fired a shot, but because America drained its political capital doing the fighting.
That reality should harden, not soften, conservative resolve: if America is to act, do so with overwhelming clarity of purpose and an eye to denying rivals the spoils of our labor. Use economic pressure, secure critical supply chains, and partner with regional powers who have real stakes on the ground rather than chasing vanity operations that hand reconstruction opportunities to authoritarian competitors. Our strategy must be to win the peace as decisively as we wage any fight.
The choice before patriots is stark: follow the siren song of forever-war pundits, or demand a smart, muscular policy that secures American interests without bankrupting our future. Support for the commander in chief must be conditional — not blind; loyalty to country means holding leaders to results, not applause lines. Hardworking Americans deserve a foreign policy that protects them, preserves American strength, and never hands strategic advantage to Beijing on a silver platter.
