President Trump’s enemies want Americans to think he has no idea what he’s doing in the Iran war — and his own words can make it easy for them to sell that claim.
Like when he says he’s pausing strikes because the Iranians really seem to want to talk — yet Iran’s military never stops striking its neighbors (our allies) and our bases, killing our troops.
It makes perfect sense that he vows serious hurt after Tehran shot missiles at US forces in Jordan, but then he says in the same breath that negotiations will continue.
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Sometimes his own people put out a confusing line, like last weekend’s leaks about how US stocks of interceptors were running low, and that’s why we paused bombing late Friday.
Huh? Taking out Iran’s missile and drone launch sites more robustly is the best way to reduce our use of THAAD and Patriot interceptors: You don’t have to stop missiles the enemy can’t launch.
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After multiple rounds of pause-and-resume, it’s unmistakable that Iran reads any US restraint as weakness.
Whereas Tehran needs to worry when Saudi Arabia joined US strikes on Iran’s pet Iraqi militias: Every sign that Iran’s attacks are bolstering the alliance against it sends the best possible signal.
And yay on Ukraine for hitting a Russian vessel ferrying to and from Iran via the Caspian Sea.
On the other hand, Reuters’ report that China is sending Iran shoulder-launched missile systems means the Islamic Republic’s flagging air defenses will soon improve.
If Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi really is the regime’s chief “realist,” most amenable to real negotiations, maybe we should help him by wiping out the Revolutionary Guard leaders who seem determined to just keep waging war on the global economy in hopes of forcing Team Trump to give up.
The Iranian strategy — which now has the Houthis joining in the economic warfare — sure seems to assume that concern for the US economy is what explains Trump’s pauses.
If that really is the issue, the prez should say so clearly, because otherwise he’s confusing the American public more than he is the enemy.
