*** “There’s never been a true war that wasn’t fought between two sets of people who weren’t certain they were right. The really dangerous people believe they are doing whatever they are doing solely and only because it is without question the right thing to do. And that is what makes them dangerous.” [ Neil Gaiman ]
This post is the seventh in a series examining the conduct of Donald John Trump, unfortunately president of the United States. His mental state has been questioned several times. What hasn’t been questioned in this second term is WHO he is listening to, and who he is NOT listening to. We have heard shifting reasons for HIS Iran war. Regardless – the current occupant of the White House is obviously THE anti-George Washington, THE anti-Abraham Lincoln. His STUPIDITY and INCOMPETENCE now have the world embroiled in a dubious war.
This post presents excerpts from. “‘ An Operational Success and a Huge Strategic Failure'” [Nicholas Kristof; New York Times; 4/5/26]:
14] “As I watch this war, my mind goes to an old proverb: A fool may throw a stone in a well, but 100 wise men cannot remove it.”
2] “The problem is that while President Trump could start the war, h can’t end it on his own’. Iran has a vote on that.”
6] “This war, in general terms, I think it’s an operational success but a huge strategic failure,” said Danny Citrinowicz, formerly a longtime Iran analyst for Israel’s military intelligence agency.”
9]. “As Vali Nasr, an Iran expert at Johns Hopkins University, told me: “We essentially removed all the people who were still a restraint on the system and replaced them with the most hawkish people.”
3] “Does Trump understand that [a] targeting civilian infrastructure is likely a war crime, and [b] Iran’s response to such attacks could be counterstrikes on oil and gas infrastructure and desalination plants around the region?”
***. “You can bomb the world into pieces, but you can’t bomb it into peace.” [ Michael Franti ]
1]. “Iran has gained leverage by controlling passage through the Strait of Hormuz. So one bizarre result of the war is that Iran is now earning almost twice as much per day in oil revenue as it was before the war..”
4] “After having started the war that led to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Trump is now framing its reopening as a task for other nations. “We’re not going to have anything to do with it,” he said..”
5] “If Trump leaves Iran controlling the Strait of Hormuz, charging hefty tolls and barring the passage of ships linked to the United States or its military partners, he will have significantly set back the global economy, weakened the United States and strengthened Iran. And American ships will remain stuck, unable to leave.”
7]. “Perhaps the most apt description of Trump’s policy toward Iran is an “incoherent maze” – a phrase Pete Hegseth applied in 2016 to Barack Obama’s foreign policy.”
***. “Power is okay, and stupidity is usually harmless. Power and stupidity together are dangerous.”
[ Patrick Rothfuss ]
8] “One fundamental misstep may have been a strategy of killing the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a deeply unpopular octogenarian, along with a top security aide…their replacements appear more aggressive.”
10] “THe new leadership is weighted toward the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, so we may see Iran evolving in an even more militaristic direction. That’s my fear: We’ve put Iran on a path to become another North Korea.”
11] “American intelligence officials assessed last year that the previous supreme leader supported uranium enrichment but did not authorize taking the next step by making nuclear weaponas. That’s apparently because he wanted to avoid the sanctions and isolation that North Korea had suffered.”
12]. “..some of those same American intelligence officials also concluded last year that “Iranian leaders were likely to shift toward producing a bomb if the American military attacked the Iranian uranium enrichment site Fordo or if Israel killed Iran’s supreme leader”…Trump and his Israeli counterpart, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, did both.”
13] “Perhaps the biggest losers are ordinary Iranians. It was their pro-democracy protests in January, and the massacres that followed, that indirectly led to this crisis. – and they now endure greater oppression in a bombed-out country as they mourn innocent war victims who include school girls and soccer players.”
*** “If there is one lesson for U.S. foreign policy from the past 10 years, it is surely †hat military intervention can seem simple…but is in fact a complex affair with the potential for unintended consequences.” [ Fareed Zakaria ]
With Justice For All 