When asked by reporters at the White House on Thursday whether the intense and sustained air campaign by American forces would be over by the midterm elections, Vice President JD Vance replied: “I wouldn’t call it a war.” What Vance didn’t say is that he has long held doubts about the war, so much so that he took the unusual—and commendable—step last spring of asking US commanders in the Middle East and elsewhere for their individual assessments of every aspect of the war, from Iran’s resistance to US weapons stockpiles.