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Trump's Third Way
On 2 September 2026, Tablet Magazine published Trump's Third Way, a column by Michael Doran of the Hudson Institute. An American family should care because Doran writes that if the United States tries to wipe out Iran's scattered missiles and drones, it might have to hold the ground those weapons sit on. That is a ground war, and he writes that the United States would then own the aftermath. He also writes that President Donald Trump is trying not to take that step.
Evidence rating: MODERATE. This rates a named analyst's reading, in Tablet Magazine, of where escalation leads: that "Truly eradicating" Iran's dispersed arsenal "might require controlling the ground on which it sits." He writes that Trump is choosing an economic siege for now, and that others, including Senator Lindsey Graham in his telling, wanted more force.
What the article says
Doran writes that Trump and Graham shared a goal: an Islamic Republic without a nuclear program and without the power to hold the region hostage. They split on method. Graham, he writes, always wanted more force. Three weeks into the war, Graham said to keep hitting for a few more weeks, take Kharg Island, Iran's main oil-export island in the Gulf, and let the regime weaken. In May, Doran writes, Graham's theory was to hurt Iran until it made a deal. Doran writes that Graham later died. He says Graham did not live to see Trump stand down a large strike that the US military had prepared, after regional allies urged the president to stop.
Some of Graham's allies, Doran writes, decided Trump had lost his nerve or was copying Barack Obama. Doran describes a June memorandum with an Iranian leader he names as Pezeshkian. He writes that it promised, with regional partners, at least 300 billion dollars for reconstruction, an end to sanctions, and no interference in each other's internal affairs. He writes that the deal never took effect. Attacks on tankers resumed in July, and officials then called the paper irrelevant. He quotes Vice President JD Vance promising that Iran would never get a dime of American taxpayer money.
Doran's own picture is a middle path. He writes that Trump is trying to avoid George W. Bush's Iraq war, which Trump had called a disaster, and Obama's approach of paying Iran for quiet. Bombing has not been enough, Doran writes, so Trump is tightening a siege. Iran's missiles and drones are spread out, mobile, and buried. Hawks talk about seizing the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow sea lane out of the Persian Gulf. Doran writes that Iran did not hold that waterway like an army holds a town. It scared shippers with a modest number of attacks and mines.
The line about American ground forces comes when he explains why he thinks Trump will not simply climb the ladder:
Truly eradicating its dispersed arsenal might require controlling the ground on which it sits.
Michael Doran, Tablet Magazine, 2 September 2026.
The next sentence in the column says that destroying Iran's economy risks social breakdown, refugees moving toward Turkey and Europe, and American responsibility for whatever comes out of the rubble. Doran writes that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran's powerful military force separate from the regular army, has set the conflict up so the next steps point toward regime change. He writes that its message to Trump is that he would have to fight the kind of war he campaigned against. Doran says Trump is refusing that dare, and has also refused Obama's course. Since April, Doran writes, the third option has been a siege, including a Treasury campaign he says began on 24 August.
What other reporting and posts add
Graham's Kharg push was public, and a fellow Republican objected. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), after walking out of a Pentagon briefing in March, said on CNN, as LBC reported: "I want President Trump to take Lindsey Graham out of the situation room," and "I don't think Lindsey Graham, for all of that hubris, has thought through or wargamed the consequences of us taking Kharg Island." LBC, 27 March 2026. (capture: twitter/t56__v668.md) A June post summarizing the collapsing US-Iran memorandum also quoted Graham saying there was "little downside to trying." (capture: twitter/t42__v494.md) The capture record contains only a Reuters headline fragment, "Lindsey Graham death," consistent with Doran's statement that Graham had died; this page has not confirmed the date or circumstances. (capture: twitter/t22__v257.md)
The collapse Doran describes, as others reported it. The World Socialist Web Site, summarizing July reporting, wrote that a "memorandum of understanding" to suspend attacks was announced 14 June and signed 17 June, that "Trump declared the 'ceasefire' over on July 8," and that in a 10 July letter he "informed Congress that the United States had resumed 'military action' against Iran." The same summary quoted Trump on Fox: "Sometimes you need a ground campaign, but we have other people that will do the ground campaign for us." WSWS, 16 July 2026. (capture: twitter/t56__v668.md)
The ground question Doran raises was already being planned. CNN reported in June that the US military rushed to prepare a ground mission to seize Iran's uranium and that Trump paused it; see US military rushed to prepare ground mission. Doran's "controlling the ground" line is the same logic applied to missiles and drones.
What it shows
One of the war's most prominent supporters concedes the core problem: Iran's missiles and drones are spread out, mobile, and buried, and destroying them "might require controlling the ground on which it sits." That is the same logic that produced the prepared uranium raid CNN reported in June, and the President's own July line on Fox: "Sometimes you need a ground campaign, but we have other people that will do the ground campaign for us." Israel had already said through its press that its infantry would not be among those "other people." The column shows the ground war waiting at the top of every ladder the air war climbs (see Air War Is Not Enough and Kharg Island and the Uranium Raid).
Check it yourself
Read the Tablet column: Trump's Third Way.
Status: Donald Trump is alive. JD Vance is alive. Lindsey Graham: Unknown (several July 2026 posts and one Tablet Magazine column report his death; not confirmed by a primary source in this record).
Who is writing, for a newcomer: Tablet is an American online magazine of Jewish news and culture, generally pro-Israel. Michael Doran is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a conservative Washington think tank, and a former White House and Pentagon Middle East official. By September 2026, the US-Israeli war on Iran that began on 28 February had passed through a spring ceasefire, a June "memorandum of understanding" that collapsed, and renewed fighting. Doran's column asks what Trump does next, and it names the step families worry about: holding Iranian ground.
Research captures: twitter/t56__v668.md, twitter/t42__v494.md, twitter/t22__v257.md
Last Updated: 2026-09-26