The US war with Iran has taught Washington several important lessons that could help current President Donald Trump “save American interests“, writes former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Burns in a column for The New York Times.
Burns led the CIA under US President Joe Biden from March 2021 to January 2025.
He defined the first lesson as the conclusion that effectively solving complex foreign policy problems takes time and patience.
“This lesson is not about fatalism or avoiding difficult decisions. It is about what can be achieved at an acceptable cost without compromising other priorities, both external and internal,“ the former CIA director wrote.
In diplomacy, he said, perfection is rare, “especially with a ruthless, ideologically driven, and entrenched regime“.
“Beheading the leadership may seem like an attractive shortcut, but as this US administration quickly discovered in Iran, that may be an illusion,“ Burns warned.
Former US President Barack Obama's logic, he said, was to engage directly with Iran in order to “play the long game“ by containing the key threat it poses - its nuclear weapons potential. In this context, the US worked to gradually mitigate other threats, "while simultaneously supporting the political freedoms of the Iranian people."
“Like his predecessor George W. Bush, Obama carefully examined the risks and secondary and tertiary consequences of war and concluded that they far outweighed the likely benefits,“ Burns stressed.
Trump, emboldened by a sense of success in the war with Iran in June 2025 and the operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, made a “tragic choice,” the former CIA director believes.
“In public policy, there is no way to undo everything. However, there is still little chance of addressing the most pressing threats that Iran poses to its neighbors, the United States, and the rest of the world if the administration can prioritize, focus, and overcome its reliance on quick fixes,” he wrote.
The second lesson is to understand that there is no substitute for using the full range of U.S. national security tools, the former official continued.
“You can’t get far in diplomacy without military and economic clout. But power alone – without patient, painstaking diplomacy backed by high-quality intelligence that policymakers take seriously – "It is rarely successful," Burns writes.
Negotiations, he says, "are not dictates" but always a complex and lengthy process of mutual concessions, in which expertise and the use of various levers of pressure are essential.
"The United States has a strong position, but reaching a lasting agreement will require imagination, the mobilization of allies and partners, and meticulous attention to detail from experienced and sometimes duplicitous Iranian negotiators. Unless the boundaries are clearly defined and strictly enforced, the Iranians will operate beyond them. We cannot afford to be guesswork," he warns.
The third lesson of the conflict, the most important one, Burns says, is that "mowing the lawn" - the use of brute force to counter immediate threats without a long-term plan for success - “has only sown the seeds of broader problems“.
“The list is long: the Iranian regime is battered but intact, weakened in many ways but even more brutal and uncompromising in its instincts.“ “The Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s strategic gift, is now a more potent source of influence for Tehran than its nuclear program, ballistic missiles, or proxies ever were,“ the former CIA director wrote.
Furthermore, the United States has undermined the trust that Gulf states once had in it, as well as in its European allies. Washington’s partners in the Indo-Pacific region have also suffered economically, gradually losing confidence in the United States as a leader, he lamented.
Burns also noted Russia's increased revenues from high global energy prices. "Xi Jinping seems to believe that the conflict has elevated China to a higher strategic level, as Trump prepares to visit Beijing in mid-May," he added. According to the former CIA director, the current situation offers the Chinese leader an opportunity to extract concessions on trade, technology and Taiwan. He also warned of long-term consequences for the global economy.