Could Trump’s Iran ‘excursion’ be a bigger global turning point than Vietnam?

[Cypress]

Could Trump’s Iran ‘excursion’ be a bigger global turning point than Vietnam?
The far shorter Middle East war has rapidly revealed the strategic weakness of US firepower in an interconnected world​

Assured by limitless military superiority and filled with such noble intent, US presidents have repeatedly been lured into launching wars only to find themselves confounded, ensnared and then broken by their inability to overpower an inferior opponent they wholly misjudged.

It seemed safe to assume that this was a fate that would never befall Donald Trump. He was implacably opposed to endless wars that seemed disconnected to the everyday lives of his supporters. He would never equate military power with military victory.

Yet Trump’s “little excursion to Iran”, judging by the drafts of the potential peace agreements that are circulating, is being universally perceived as a defeat. Almost regardless of the outcome – most likely a return to the old status quo – the war looks ill-conceived, a monument to confused objectives, bad planning and misplaced assumptions.

Trump’s war of choice looks to be a signal of defeat that will have an effect in several fields.

It marks the collapse of Israel’s 20-year Iran strategy to produce regime change and will accelerate the already rapid decline in the influence of this Israeli government in Washington. Danny Citrinowicz, the former head of an Iran branch of Israeli military intelligence, describes the war as an operational success but a strategic fiasco for Israel.

For students of war, the status of cheap drones as the great leveller in modern conflict has been confirmed – a lesson Iran learned from the Ukraine conflict better than the Pentagon.

For the US foreign policy establishment, exemplified by the Council on Foreign Relations, the missteps in Iran are the final confirmation that Trump’s highly personalised, instinctive system of predatory diplomacy creates only more disorder.

The fallout is likely to hit Europe hard. As a squeeze on living standards seeps through the global economic system over the next year, centrist incumbents in France, Germany and the UK may face an electoral beating that tears at the architecture of the EU.

Could Trump’s Iran ‘excursion’ be a bigger global turning point than Vietnam?

The far shorter Middle East war has rapidly revealed the strategic weakness of US firepower in an interconnected world

www.theguardian.com

 

[Phantasmal]

It absolutely is! We always came back after past Republican Presidents abysmal foreign policies. I think DonOld has forever changed our relationships, other countries can not count on the stability of the USA going forward. Our word is no longer our bond.

 

[Cypress]

It absolutely is! We always came back after past Republican Presidents abysmal foreign policies. I think DonOld has forever changed our relationships, other countries can not count on the stability of the USA going forward. Our word is no longer our bond.

I think those are good points.

I was talking to a German guy who said we are at a pivot point where Germans are permanently changing their opinion about the United States.

Also, although he will never admit it, I think Trump is a little pissed that Bibi Netanyahu manipulated him into this war. This war might affect our relationship with the current government in Israel.

 

[Nordberg]

The fact that a crazy man like Trump won rhe presidency TWICE scares other nations. If he stopped at one, it could be an aberration. This is more serious. It shows that a large part of America is susceptible to a conman and will accept military aggression happily.

 

[QP!]

The fact that a crazy man like Trump won rhe presidency TWICE scares other nations. If he stopped at one, it could be an aberration. This is more serious. It shows that a large part of America is susceptible to a conman and will accept military aggression happily.

Yup.

You will increasingly see all of the US allies move both their currencies and their key military purchases away from the US.

The risk of the three US magats rallying behind another nutter is just too high now to be all in on the US being a outsource positive force in the world militarily or economically.

This will impact US GDP immensely for decades to come as debt will cost the US more and the US buying power will go down.

 

[Diogenes]

I was talking to a German guy who said we are at a pivot point where Germans are permanently changing their opinion about the United States.

Anecdotal. Otherwise, a good discussion.