The last few days have been an ongoing spectacle of media bias and incompetence in the coverage of the Qassem Suleimani strike and its fallout.

Mainstream outlets, suffering mightily from Trump derangement syndrome, practically rooted for a wider conflict with Iran in the hopes it might damage Trump, then evinced genuine disappointment when Iran backed down after half-heartedly lobbing a few short-range ballistic missiles in the direction of U.S. troops stationed in Iraq, which inflicted no casualties.

But just think what could have been! Three days ago, The Atlantics David A. Graham wrote a piece headlined, Its 2003 All Over Again, in which he argues the recent killing of Iranian general Suleimani by U.S. missile strike last week is just like the runup to the 2003 invasion of Iraq under George W. Bush.

The U.S. stands on the brink of an unpredictable war in the Middle East, Graham writes, then describes a scenario in which an American president, untutored in foreign affairs, is pushed into war by a hawkish vice president and a powerful Cabinet secretary seeking to follow through on their deep-rooted ideological commitments. Meanwhile, as civilian leaders march toward war, military officers seem unprepared and startled by the administrations belligerence.

See the connection? Graham sure does. Each new piece of information about President Donald Trumps decision to assassinate Iranian General Qassem Soleimani produces sobering parallels with the situation 17 years ago.

What a difference two days make. After a face-saving missile attack on an Iraqi airbase that houses some U.S. troops, which American officials were apparently told about in advance by Iraqi intermediaries, the fight seems to have gone out of Iran. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted Tuesday night that Iran had concluded proportionate measures and that it does not seek escalationan admission by Tehran that President Trump had called its bluff and the ayatollahs arent willing to risk a broader conflict.

Further confirmation came when Shiite Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr told pro-Iranian militias in Iraq not to retaliate, saying in a statement, the crisis is over.

On Wednesday, Trump confirmed that no U.S. troops were injured in the missile attack and that Iran now appears to be standing down. Instead of ratcheting up the bellicose rhetoric, Trump gave the Iranians an off-ramp, saying America is ready to embrace peace with all who seek it, and calling for new multilateral negotiations to replace the defunct 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

So far, all of this is very unlike the leadup to the Iraq War, let alone the beginning of World War III. To the medias dismay, Trump isnt turning into Bush, and Iran isnt turning into Iraq. In fact, the entire saga has been deterrence-through-strength 101. Trump surgically took out the worlds number-one terrorist and successfully managed a de-escalation with Iran, but all the liberal media can muster in response is fear-mongering, dissimulation, and what amounts to a collective sneer at Trump and his supporters.

The Atlantic ran a column by David Frum on Wednesday crowing about how the American people still arent rallying around Trump. The Trump administration and its supporters seem to have hoped for a rally around the flag effect from the killing of Soleimani. This did not happen.

Can you imagine Frum or any other mainstream pundit writing such an article after, say, Benghazi? Of course not. Yet that was a legitimate crisis of the Obama administrations own making, a deceit-laden screwup brought on by a needless Libya campaign that turned the country into a failed state. Remember all the Atlantic think pieces on how Americans werent rallying around President Obama? Me neither.

It seems the mediaalong with no small number of Democratswill say anything and take any position, no matter how asinine, if it might hurt Trump. Theyll even praise a murderous theocratic regime. Heres the Washington Posts Dave Weigel, with a case in point:

And heres Joy Behar of ABCs The View, touting the good news that Richard Spencer, the racist neo-Nazi provocateur, regrets supporting Trump because of the Suleimani strikeat which the audience applauded.

No wonder so many people hate the mainstream press. No wonder, for example, that in the aftermath of the shooting at West Freeway Church of Christ in Fort Worth, Texas, the churchs minister, Britt Farmer, refused to speak with anyone in the mainstream media. He gave only one interview to the editor of a Christian outlet, who said Farmer feared how a conservative Christian minister in a pistol-packing congregation might be portrayed. Smart man.

Of course, no one can predict what will come next in the Middle East. Perhaps Iran will retaliate further, maybe with a terrorist-style attack against U.S. targets somewhere. But for now, by any reasonable standard Trumps gambit has worked. He dealt a harsh blow to Iran and the mullahs backed down. Just dont expect the media to be honest about it.

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To The Liberal Media's Dismay, There Will Be No Disastrous War With Iran - The Federalist