Ceasefire leaves America with little to show for Trump’s war of choice | Editorial
The might of the U.S. military remains unquestionable, but America’s standing in the world has been demolished and the president’s vacuous, unpredictable nature reaffirmed.
Donald Trump’s war of choice with Iran may have come to an end with a two-week ceasefire deal announced Tuesday. Or it may not. But the president, having boxed himself in by threatening to commit what would likely be war crimes if his demands weren’t met, has found a way out.
Whatever peace agreement ultimately emerges will be far from Trump’s ordered “unconditional surrender,” let alone his goal of “regime change.” Instead, the ill-considered conflict that upended the world economy and fractured U.S. alliances leaves Iran’s brutal and repressive government battered but unbowed.
The might of the U.S. military remains unquestionable, as does the bravery and dedication of the men and women in uniform. But the war — spearheaded by fools and promising disaster from its inception — has delivered a different defeat: America’s standing in the world has been demolished and the president’s vacuous, unpredictable nature reaffirmed.
Recent reporting by the New York Times recounts how Trump came to the decision to go to war. A February presentation by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised that Iran’s ballistic missile program would be easy to destroy, that the regime could not close the Strait of Hormuz or attack neighboring countries, and that the government would be overthrown.
These assertions are not only risible in hindsight, but regime change was considered ludicrous by U.S. intelligence officials, with CIA Director John Ratcliffe reportedly calling it “farcical.” Still, killing Iranian leadership and crippling the country militarily was achievable, according to advisers, and it captured Trump’s imagination.
While initial statements by Secretary of State Marco Rubio painted the U.S. as starting the war because Israel was planning to attack Iran and America needed to get ahead of the expected retaliation against U.S. assets in the region, Trump was no innocent tricked by Netanyahu; he was an addled gambler thinking his luck would hold.
The president had already disregarded Congress and international law with strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific — ordering the extrajudicial killings of more than 160 people since September — and he had faced little consequence after bombing Iranian nuclear sites in June or kidnapping Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January.
His lawless spree — cheered on by many of his supporters and unchallenged by most Republicans — convinced him he could join Israel and quickly decimate Iran in an offensive war.
While successful in swiftly decapitating Iranian leadership and destroying the country’s navy and air forces, after five weeks of bombing, Iran continued to strike America’s Middle East allies and control the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of the world’s oil flows. This sent fuel costs soaring, with gas in the U.S. reaching more than $4 a gallon on average.
High prices at the pump undoubtedly contributed to the war’s unpopularity, with only about a third of U.S. adults approving of Trump’s actions. The president also never sought the American people’s support for the war, nor the constitutionally mandated permission from Congress.
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It is undisputed that Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism, contributes to instability in the region through proxies, and is working on developing a nuclear weapon. It is run by a cruel regime that does not tolerate dissent. Antigovernment protests earlier this year, spurred by a dire economic situation, were met with overwhelming violence that left thousands dead.
But rather than make a clear case for why the U.S. needed to strike an Iran weakened by the June bombings and internal discontent, to include allies in helping rein in a rogue nation, the Trump administration was still trying to explain itself weeks into the war.
On March 31, Rubio released a video full of questionable assertions — including that Iran was imminently close to having “so many missiles and have so many drones that no one could attack them” — and completely ignoring the fact that it was Trump who abandoned the 2015 nuclear deal, negotiated under President Barack Obama, which saw Iran curtail its nuclear ambitions in exchange for sanction relief.
Tuesday’s ceasefire was declared a victory by both sides. But what did the U.S. gain after spending $45 billion and counting? What do the deaths of more than 1,500 civilians, including 244 children, and 13 U.S. service members resolve?
Iran’s nuclear ambitions linger, its hold over the Strait of Hormuz has tightened, the damage to its conventional weapons programs is unclear, its regional proxies remain entrenched, and there’s a new generation of ruthless hard-liners in Tehran.
They say there are no winners in war. But perhaps the biggest loser is an America led by Donald Trump.