Trump Has Already Lost in Iran
Exiting the conflict will require eating humble pie
“I would have won Vietnam very quickly if I were president,” said U.S. President Donald Trump, calling into CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on April 22. The boast -- made by a man who dodged the draft for the conflict which killed some 58,000 Americans -- was revealing, in that it displayed Trump’s bottomless faith in his own talent and was a (likely unintentional) unintentional comparison to the joint U.S.-Israel military operation against Iran. However, as Operation Epic Fury passes the two-month mark, Trump has lost the Iran war strategically and militarily, and can only end the conflict by swallowing a dose of humility -- not a character trait he is known for.
The war began on February 28 with vague strategic goals; none of them have been accomplished. There has been no resolution on Iran’s nuclear program. At the outset, Trump called on Iranians to rise up and overthrow their government after the bombing campaign stopped. However, after the April 8 cease-fire, the theocratic regime in Tehran has remained firmly in charge after its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed on the first day of the war. Trump has claimed that Iran’s new leadership is “much more reasonable.” However, according to reporting from the New York Times, hard-line generals from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) have taken charge of decision-making, as Khamenei’s successor, his son, Mojtaba, is in hiding, fearing being killed by the U.S. or Israel. In short, meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
