Trump's Legacy: Screwing the Pooch!

On August 8, Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, claimed that Iran was “looking for a deal”, and that the end of the conflict was “within reach”.

Other Trump officials on Sunday talk shows stated in unison that Iran was “desperate for a deal”, “economically exhausted”, and “militarily overstretched”.  If so, then why did Iran strike a UAE tanker with a missile, appoint their hardest-line general to head up their war effort, then publicly announce the six “non-negotiable, binding conditions” required to re-open the Strait of Hormuz?

Now, think back to the Iran Hostage Crisis in late 1979.  Fifty-two Americans were taken from the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held for 444 days. They weren’t released until the exact hour that Ronald Reagan took the oath of office. There is a lesson here, and Iran has mastered it. It remains all about the art of prolonged disruption.  Only this time, the Strait of Hormuz is Iran’s battlefield. 

We’re learning the hard way. Real power does not always rest with the country with more money or missiles. In this case, real power seemingly rests with the side that needs a deal less urgently, where time is an ally.

That’s the dilemma.

To be kind, people might say that President Trump, very much like Jimmy Carter, simply underestimated all the well-chronicled ramifications when dealing with the likes of Iran. Instead, history will show that a misguided president pulled out of a perfectly enforceable agreement, and ended up screwing the pooch!   

Unfortunately, Trump’s miscalculations have spiraled into deal averse repercussions. This war is not ending soon, we aren’t winning, and there are no win-win deals in the offing.  We’ve already spent $113B, and Hegseth is asking for another $1.5T.  That’s not the financial profile of a war that is being won, or ending soon. Our weapons inventory is running dangerously low.  Our Chairman, Joint Chiefs, Dan Caine, is privately arguing for an exit strategy.  What’s more, Iran is not isolated.  Russia is providing satellite imagery of US military activity and is sending more technicians to an Iranian nuclear facility later this fall. China is purchasing Iranian “sanctioned” oil, and Pakistan is negotiating with Iran to re-route Iranian goods around our naval blockade.

In effect, under Trump’s inept leadership, we’ve gone from abandoning the 2015 JCPOA, successfully negotiated by the US, Iran and 5 primary participant countries, and endorsed by 90 others, to disrupting the entire world order.

NUFF SED!!!