Ari Fleischer, the former White House press secretary in the George W. Bush administration, in reaction to remarks by J.D. Vance about the role of the war in Iran in the Republicans’ defeat in the midterm elections, said: “The problem wasn’t the Iran war; the problem was the ceasefire.”

On Wednesday, 13 Aban, Fleischer wrote on the social media platform X that starting a war requires victory and that the U.S. operations after an attack on Iran should not have been halted until the fall of the Islamic Republic.

He said the war should have ended six months earlier with the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and the restoration of oil flow. Fleischer also called for the removal of Iran’s second- and third-ranking officials and for U.S. support for Western-backed forces to take power.

He added that Washington has missed the chance to create a more peaceful Middle East, prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, and overthrow the Islamic Republic.

Fleischer said the ceasefire was the cause of uncertainty about how the war would end or whether it would be resumed, and he described higher prices and the continued presence of U.S. forces in the region as consequences of this situation. Addressing Vance, he emphasized: “It’s not the problem of war; it’s the problem of that so-called ceasefire.”