WALL STREET JOURNAL
The Diminishing Risk of an Iran Attack
Marc Gustafson
February 22, 2026

Early one Saturday morning two years ago, I stood outside President Biden’s house in Rehoboth Beach, Del., with intelligence that Iran was about to launch an unprecedented
missile barrage at Israel. The stakes felt enormous, yet I hesitated before waking him. My concern was that the region would spiral into chaos. Many of my friends were stationed at bases that could become
targets. Working at the Central Intelligence Agency in the post-9/11 era, I had long worried about Iran and the possibility that a U.S. misstep would spark chaos. A lot has changed in two years. The risk of regional war has greatly diminished. Several factors have put the regime on its heels…READ MORE