President Trump has announced that the United States and Iran have reached a deal to end their war.
The United States, however, has little to celebrate: Trump and his team, in record time, just lost a war to a militarily mediocre—but nonetheless extremely dangerous—adversary.
The Trump administration will claim that it achieved a victory because it got an Iran without nuclear weapons.
More to the point, at the time Trump chose to go to war, Iran was nowhere near getting a bomb, and certainly not within weeks of a weapon, as Trump asserted.
In his celebratory message, Trump said: “I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz.”
Trump also declared that the U.S. Navy’s blockade of Iranian ports is over, something that is indeed within his power, but that only means America will withdraw while Iran remains.
Had Trump toppled the regime in Tehran, he would have had the thanks of most of the world—and congratulations from even his most dedicated critics. »