Thirty-eight days after it began, Operation Epic Fury paused and perhaps ended with a ceasefire. The United States-Israel military campaign did not topple the Islamic Republic, as some hoped, but it should still be regarded as a success.

Critics of President Donald Trump would have you think otherwise. Some commentators have labeled it a “failure,” while others have claimed it is “pretty close to the worst possible ending.”  Some have even asserted that “Trump has just lost a war to Iran,” likening it to the “Suez debacle” of 1956, in which British Prime Minister Antony Eden was forced to resign after sending troops under false pretenses to the Middle East in a bid to topple the Egyptian government of Gamal Abdel Nasser.