Is the Iran war pretty much over or what?
After a day of conflicting signals about when the war against Iran might end, President Trump struck a belligerent tone Monday evening, warning of even more aggressive action if Iranian leaders tried to cut off the world’s energy supply.
“We will hit them so hard that it will not be possible for them or anybody else helping them to ever recover that section of the world,” Mr. Trump said, meeting with reporters.
Earlier in the day, the president suggested that the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran could be near an end. The war “is very complete, pretty much,” Mr. Trump said in a phone interview with a CBS reporter, Weijia Jiang. He said, “We’re very far ahead of schedule.”
The day before, he told UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer that we already won the war. He said the objective was unconditional surrender and that he got to approve their choice of leader. It was about eradicating Iran’s nuclear weapons program that had been obliterated just a few months earlier. It was about eliminating Iran’s ballistic missile program. It was about regime change until it wasn’t. So what will it take before Trump decides that his war is over?
Asked at the news conference later if the war with Iran would be over this week, Mr. Trump said, “No.” He said only “soon, very soon.”
The reality that the war is happening cannot be disputed. The reality that Congress will do nothing about it is behind us. And regardless of whether there was any imminent justification for engaging in an offensive war against Iran at this time, there are few countries more deserving of attack than Iran. It is thus entirely in Trump’s hands to decide when he, the great and glorious Trump, is victorious. This raises two questions.
- What will have to happen before Trump declares a complete victory?
- What should happen before the war comes to an end?
While Secretary of State and former honorable man, Marco Rubio, has done his best to sane-wash Trump’s semi-coherent and invariably conflicting claims, only to be undercut by Trump at every turn, it is not outside the realm of possibility that Trump wakes up with gas and declares victory, claims the Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei is his new Delcy who likes him very much, and that many people are saying the new Trump Tehran Resort and Golf Course on the newly demolished property will be the greatest resort ever.
But given this opportunity to deal with Iran since bombs have already dropped and Iran has long been a thorn in the side of its neighbors, a blight on enlightened civilization and a primary sponsor of international terrorism, what should be accomplished before the tomahawks go silent?
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