By Longtime Trump Critic George Will Praises Strikes on Iran for Restoring U.S. Deterrence Credibility — In an unexpected shift amid the expanding U.S.-Israel military campaign involving Iran, conservative commentator and Washington Post columnist George Will has publicly endorsed the Trump administration’s recent actions as reinforcing America’s global standing.
Will, historically critical of Donald Trump and a supporter of Democratic figures Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in recent elections, focused his analysis on the joint operation known as Operation Epic Fury in a Sunday opinion piece in The Washington Post titled “At last, the credibility of U.S. deterrence is being restored.”
Highlighting unrest within Iran, he wrote: “The perhaps 30,000 protesters who perished in Iran’s streets in early January did not die in vain.” Will framed the military strikes as a calculated “decapitation strategy” carried out through “precision munitions, directed by spectacular intelligence,” targeting senior Iranian regime figures — including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
He argued the campaign’s purpose goes beyond immediate conflict: “The U.S. action for regime change in Iran is not sufficient to produce regional tranquility,” Will wrote. “It is, however, a necessity for beginning to reestablish a precondition for a more peaceable world: the credibility of U.S. deterrence.”
Will traced the erosion of American deterrence credibility to pivotal moments in recent U.S. foreign policy, from the 1975 evacuation of Saigon to President Barack Obama’s decision not to enforce a “red line” on Syrian chemical weapons in 2013, and the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal under President Biden.
He further contended that recent developments underscore vulnerabilities among U.S. adversaries: “Today, Vladimir Putin is watching Venezuela, Iran (a source of some of Putin’s drones) and soon, perhaps, Cuba, join Syria as vanished clients. The swiftness of their downfall illustrates the hollowness of Russia’s claim to be a formidable global actor.”
Pushing back against critics who label the strikes a “war of choice,” Will dismissed the term as something “too casually bandied” and poorly suited to nuanced geopolitical realities. He added that the administration “has chosen not to wager U.S. safety on Iran’s abandoning its multi-decade pursuit of nuclear weapons, or on Iran’s acquiring them but not really meaning ‘Death to America.’”
Concluding with guarded optimism about Iran’s political trajectory, Will invoked an American poet: “Nationalism, so often derided, was never captured by Iran’s regime. Instead, nationalism simmered against the state, which warred unceasingly against the nation. As America prepares to help, from a distance, Iran’s political rebirth, we should heed an American poet’s advice of bold thoroughness. Robert Frost: ‘The best way out is always through.’”
The operation, conducted with Israeli cooperation over the weekend, has sparked global debate. Reports of U.S. casualties, Iranian reprisals, and disruptions to regional stability and energy markets have followed. Trump’s supporters have cast the campaign as decisive action against entrenched threats, while detractors warn of broader escalation. Will’s endorsement from a prominent conservative voice brings a surprising dynamic to the ongoing discussion over the campaign’s consequences.
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