"The Strait Jacket"
It suits the president well.
by David Haggith
"Iran flat-out rejected Trump’s “peace plan” today (again) and continued its attacks around the gulf and at Israel where missile interceptors seem to be stretched a little thin now in their ability to shield the public, almost like Israel is running triage to save their use now for the most important sites. Iran clearly wants to stay in the fight at this point to exact as much revenge as it can (and it has said as much several times.) A move by US President Donald Trump to start indirect talks is illogical and not viable at this stage of the conflict, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported on Wednesday
None of this stopped the president from continuing to say that Iran is eagerly negotiating for peace, and he hopes to have an agreement later this week, to which Iran gave an interesting response: "Has the level of your inner struggle reached the stage of you (Trump) negotiating with yourself?" That came from Iran’s top spokesperson for its joint military command, Ebrahim Zolfaqari, speaking on Iranian state TV.
Trump also claimed enthusiastically that Iran has agreed to give up its nukes. Clearly he is smoking something different than the Iranians, who shrewdly suggested that all of Trump’s claims are vain boasts, solely intended to talk up US stock prices and talk down oil prices. Both markets do seem ready to lap up the swill on a daily basis. So, mission accomplished, I guess.
‘I don’t want to say in advance, but they’ve agreed they will never have a nuclear weapon,’ Trump said. Hmm. “I don’t want to say in advance, but I will, even though no one asked me to.” Always a good tactic to speak the news that isn’t going to happen in advance while you still can. If you wait for it to happen, you’ll never get to make the boast.
Trump make vain boasts?
Iran says it has been taken in by Trump’s empty claims three times already so there is no point in negotiating with someone you cannot trust to hold to his word or his stated intent. Iran cited past instances where negotiations coincided with surprise attacks. Of course, Trump said in those past instances that Iran was just stalling for time, not negotiating - always just pretending it might concede something important.
While the president claims the war will be ending in an agreement soon so that the US can leave, Iran says (paraphrasing), ”That’s fine, go ahead and leave the area if you want; but we’re going to keep bombing until it really, really hurts.” They told the president he has no say on when the war ends because it won’t end until they say it does. His side might end, and they are fine with that.
A Trump adviser was quoted as describing the administration’s approach as combining diplomacy with coercion, saying Trump has “a hand open for a deal and the other is a fist.” The president even described a significant confidence-building step by Iran today that he said was related to oil and gas flows through the Strait of Hormuz, calling it a “very big present worth a tremendous amount of money.” As usual, his claims was short on any details.
Iran subsequently informed the International Maritime Organization that “non-hostile vessels” could transit the strategic waterway, which carries around one-fifth of global oil supply. It is not clear, however, what “non-hostile” vessels means. Does it refer to all ships that are not carrying oil and are not military vessels, regardless of whom they are shipping for, or does it refer only to ships that are flagged under a nation that is regarded as a friend to Iran? If the latter, then Iran’s big present was the equivalent of saying, “For your birthday present, we’ve decided we won’t spank any of your friends, but we are going to keep punching you in the mouth.”
Trump reassured the US, "I can tell you, they’d like to make a deal." The very same words we heard a lot during the endless tariff negotiations when Trump would say his phone was ringing off the hook with nations eager to make a deal. Then nothing would happen for weeks, or any nations he mentioned specifically would say they hadn’t placed any calls to the president. Then, eventually, the president would raise his tariff threat a big notch higher in order to try to elevate their interest in negotiating. Perhaps besides negotiating with himself, he also calls himself a lot and then pretends he is talking to someone on the other end who is pleading for a deal, talking loudly enough to make sure Karoline Leavitt can hear the fruitful conversation.
The President continued to refuse to name names, but he said Iranian leaders the US is dealmaking with gave the country a ‘present.’ ‘They did something yesterday that was amazing. Actually, they gave us a present and the present arrived today and it was a very big present, worth a tremendous amount of money,’ Trump said. ‘And I’m not going to tell you what that present is, but it was a very significant prize and they gave it to us.’
Tune into The Apprentice next week to find out what it is! Maybe it’s a shiny, new fancy jet like the one Qatar gave him, which they can encourage the president to travel in as soon as possible to his final negotiation meeting in Iran. Something that says “Trojan Airlines” and bears the logo of a horse on wheels.
Trump said that gesture signaled one thing to him. ‘We’re dealing with the right people,’ he stated. Uhhhh huh! Trump also said that the only two people disappointed by the sweet present given by Iran and its likelihood of sealing a deal were Pete Hegseth and General “Raizin’ Cain.” (Well, and maybe Senator Lindsay Graham.) To make them happy, he has ordered up a few more thousand troops today, particularly paratroopers and sent them on their way. Most articles believe they are going to storm Kharg Island. Some veterans called a deployment onto Kharg a “suicide mission,” while Republican Nancy Mace (a Trump supporter) replied to Trump’s plan by walking out of a military briefing, saying,
"Just walked out of a House Armed Services briefing on Iran. Let me repeat: I will not support troops on the ground in Iran, even more so after this briefing. Washington’s war machine is hard at work. They are try [sic] to drag us into Iran to make it another Iraq. We can’t let them. The justifications presented to the American public for the war in Iran were not the same military objectives we were briefed on today in the House Armed Services Committee. This gap is deeply troubling. The longer this war continues, the faster it will lose the support of Congress and the American people.
Virginia Burger, a Marine veteran and senior defense policy analyst at the Project on Government Oversight’s Center for Defense Information, said, "Why are we going into something that [could be] be so protracted? Iran [has a] vote in this, right? We don’t exist in a vacuum - the Marines aren’t just going to walk onto Kharg Island [unopposed]. What is that going to look like, as far as loss of American lives, loss of American equipment?"
Another vet, Mike Prysner, Executive Director of the Center on Conscience & War said, "What people don’t realize is that the U.S. is preparing for a big war. Everyone’s getting ready to go." John Byrnes, a veteran and the strategic director for Concerned Veterans for America, said, "I am certain we can get our boots on the ground. I am more concerned about a long-term operation. Every step along the way [in a ground deployment], there’s going to be some U.S. casualties - and what generals might think is going to take a week suddenly might take a month or two months."
And still another …An extended conflict in Iran might “be something more akin to Gallipoli than Vietnam,” Webb said, referring to the failed, heavy-casualty allied campaign to capture Turkish straits during World War I. So, the quagmire begins. Remember, Iran has to have the strait open by this weekend, or the promised bombing of all of its electrical power plants begins. So, besides Kharg Island, I am sure boots are needed to extract the fissile material before it moves into the wrong hands.
Now, if you want a suicide mission, it looks like the UK has cratered to Trump’s ridicule and is planning something appears really stupid: "The UK is set to lead a coalition of countries including France to help sweep the Strait of Hormuz for mines and reopen it to oil tanker traffic. Additionally, the UK said it is looking to send a either a Royal Navy mine sweeper ship or hire a civilian ship that can launch mine sweeping drones into the area, The Times reported."
One wonders how long until the first allied ship sinks to the bottom of the sea with thousands of sailors inside. While they may do fine with avoiding the mines they are sweeping, by providing such a target-rich environment, they will also have to be dodging hundreds of drones and missiles topside while doing it. In WWII history (before my time), I don't recall hearing about the allies notifying the enemy in advance that they’ll be coming very close by with war ships and stating what their mission is.
Perhaps we can take comfort in reminding ourselves how Secretary Hegseth gathered every general in the nation out of their theaters of war to sit in a theater in Washington and tell them it was time to slim down and warrior up. That pep rally to shine up the top brass was, to me, the mark of a keen warrior."
