How could it be any worse? The United States has lost a war to Iran. It has made itself a global laughing stock, empowered Russia and China, and very possibly wrecked NATO. Perhaps worse still, it has shown that it has no mechanism to use against an obviously deranged president — at least, no mechanism it is willing to activate.

To measure the extent of the defeat — a defeat for the entire West — we can do no better than to recall President Donald Trump’s own commentary.