The Iran conflict has also illustrated the cost of going to war with few allies on board.
Bush secured significant international support before launching his Iraq and Afghan campaigns, though that backing waned over time.
By contrast, Trump attacked Iran with little prior consultation or explanation and has found European and Asian leaders mostly resistant to his demands for assistance.
Relations with Trump had already been strained by his threat to seize Greenland, his questioning of NATO’s utility, his reduction of weapons supplies to Ukraine and his sweeping tariffs on trade partners.
The conflict has also mirrored the Iraq invasion in terms of a regional spillover that seemed to catch Washington off-guard, in this case Tehran’s retaliation against U.S. Gulf allies.
With Iran’s neighbors quietly seeking to de-escalate a conflict they never wanted, a Gulf official lamented that the administration might be making some of the same errors of the post-9/11 wars.
“What was the (U.S.) strategy here?” asked the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Saudi analyst Aziz Alghashian described "a sense of limitation and helplessness in the Gulf about the wars that are taking place due to the whims of the United States."
While the Iraq and Afghan wars ended as unpopular conflicts, both started with solid support at home.
Trump’s war enjoyed no such honeymoon in public opinion.
Most Americans were against it from the outset, and he has even drawn criticism from prominent figures associated with his “America First” movement.
Trump had initially expected to replicate his quick win from a January 3 raid that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
But the Iran campaign instead has hardened into an uneasy stalemate that has not achieved most of Trump’s shifting objectives, including shutting down its nuclear program, and has depleted the Pentagon's missile stockpiles.
Still, Trump is not without defenders.
Mark Dubowitz, head of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, an anti-Iran think tank in Washington, denied Trump had plunged the U.S. into an endless war and insisted he had scored successes that would eventually bring victory.
“It’s been a 47-year war waged by the Islamic Republic against America,” Dubowitz said. “And now we’ve struck back.”
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