India, March 31 -- Wars have long been the ultimate test of American presidential power, and the most dangerous arena for overreach. They are unpredictable, costly, and resistant to control. What begins as a display of strength can quickly become a source of vulnerability. That pattern is beginning to emerge in the US's ongoing conflict with Iran, both in how the war was initiated and how it is now unfolding. The current occupant of the White House may now be confronting that reality.

Indications are that Donald Trump may have gone to war on the advice of a group of neoconservatives - the architects of the Iraq War - along with the advice of pro-war senators such as Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Ted Cruz of Texas, as well as Israe...