Trump’s War
“Obama’s Museum, Trump’s War, & the NCAA’s Latest Sports Scandal,” Kareem Takes on the News
“Trumps’War“
Summary:
The U.S.-Iran deal announced this week ends roughly five-and-a-half weeks of intense military conflict plus two additional months of uneasy truce, with the primary concrete outcome being the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to global shipping. President Trump opened the war effort with declared ambitions to aid Iranian protesters and encourage the overthrow of the Iranian regime following strikes that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. But final agreement leaves Iran’s leader-ship, now headed by Khamenei’s son, intact. Trump and his top officials say Iran has agreed not to pursue a nuclear weapon, though Iranian leaders indicated Sunday that nuclear negotiations would depend on the lifting of a U.S. naval blockade. Meanwhile, critics across the political spectrum—including Trump allies Mark Levin and Sen. Lindsey Graham—have raised questions about the deal’s terms.
My Take:
On Sunday, touting the deal, Trump told the Wall Street Journal: “As far as regime change, I never cared about regime change.” That is a bold statement, given that the war started with strikes that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader, and public declarations that the time for the Iranian people to take back their country had arrived. NPR’s documented timeline of shifting war aims traces what actually happened: the stated goal moved from regime change to unconditional surrender to nuclear disarmament, and eventually to a reopened shipping lane. The Cato Institute concluded, without much fanfare of its own, that the administration “failed to accomplish the two principal aims of this war.” Minor omissions, perhaps. The New York Times put it bluntly in their front-page editorial: “President Trump Lost This War.”
In any competition, whether on a basketball court or wherever else results are tracked, you do not get to redefine what winning means after the final score is posted and then claim the championship. Trump changed the stated goal of the war after the results came in, then declared victory based on his new terms. The administration has offered creative explanations for why this constitutes a victory. JD Vance, designated “architect of the deal” by Sen. Graham (a true master at the art of flattery), declared the agreement would “fundamentally transform the Middle East for the next 50 years.” How many times have we heard this before? In point of fact, despite all of Trump’s carnival barking, there is little practical difference between President Obama’s 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and Trump’s new agreement, which was finally released Wednesday with all the excitement of an afterthought.
The people who bore the real cost of this conflict in blood and treasure have not gotten much space in the victory announcements. To begin with, as many as 10,000 people across the region died as a result of the war. In economic terms, the war has cost American taxpayers an estimated $130 billion, while countries in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa absorbed losses that are 10 to 20 times larger per capita than the U.S. These are effects felt by real working families who had no voice in the decisions that sent their energy prices through the roof. Populations in Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen, who live under Iran’s proxy military networks, are still in the same boat, as are the Iranian people. And Trump wants the world to salute him for getting the Strait of Hormuz reopened. He’s always bragging about the many, many cognitive tests he aced. Has he really forgotten that the Strait closed on his watch?