Quoting oneself usually smacks of self-aggrandizement. But I’ll make an exception to hold myself accountable. I wrote on March 31 that “it would be a debacle to pretend that ending the war much as it stands would be anything other than a failure.” President Donald Trump’s ceasefire is murky, so one can’t be certain, but the conflict seems to be ending where it stood back then and looks like a failure.

There are big plusses. The Iranian military and nuclear capabilities have been pummeled, although neither has been “completely destroyed,” as Vice President JD Vance claimed during his White House press briefing on Thursday.