The current situation in the United States, similar to that of the United States in the world, is not normal at all. This should call the opinion of the American public and the world to take a position that seems unusual, and even sad: In the current confusing environment, one does not just wish for an American victory in the country’s 3-week war against Iran.
So that there is no moral confusion about this statement, I must make clear what I do not want: I do not want the death or injury of American soldiers. And I do not want the destruction of the nation of Israel, whose right to security I have supported in line after line.
The current situation in the United States, similar to that of the United States in the world, is not normal at all. This should call the opinion of the American public and the world to take a position that seems unusual, and even sad: In the current confusing environment, one does not just wish for an American victory in the country’s 3-week war against Iran.
So that there is no moral confusion about this statement, I must make clear what I do not want: I do not want the death or injury of American soldiers. And I do not want the destruction of the nation of Israel, whose right to security I have supported in line after line.
Even with these conditions, however, I have come to the conclusion that an outright US victory over Iran would be far more dangerous to the US, Israel, and the rest of the world than ending this foolish war by other means—even if that means resorting to the usual, face-saving tactic of declaring victory and “going home” without any clear political, military, or strategic victory for the Iranian government.
First, let’s acknowledge the obvious. US President Donald Trump himself has never offered a concrete vision of what Iran’s victory would entail. Therefore, to support this war means to subscribe to a clear and irrational view of American power – an opinion that Americans can correct – and enjoy what Washington can do in ways that are completely separated from considering the morals or ethics of what it should do.
But this is only for beginners. What is wrong with this war is not just the fact that Trump never sought authorization from Congress, as the US Constitution requires him to do. It is also beyond his inability to provide a clear, honest and consistent statement of his government’s intentions in this conflict. And it’s more, too, than the fact that the president who has he boasted that he knows more than the generals has been repeatedly and shamefully surprised by Iran’s obvious and visible efforts to defend itself.
The biggest problem that holds all these facts is that the United States is ruled by an evil warlord whose megalomaniacal tendencies have blossomed alarmingly before the eyes of the world during his second term in office. Rarely a day goes by without more evidence of this fact, from his lavish and lavish White House appearance (including the new ballroom) to plans to put his likeness on US currency to his power-hungry statements about “to take Cuba” and be able to do whatever he wants with a free country—all while still being unsettled by the growing state of his government in Iran.
It is because the American political establishment has not found any way to contain Trump and put reasonable limits on his authority that we must hope that the current conflict with Iran can do just that. In past eras, when toxic actors have laid their grip on the country’s governance, Congress, the courts, and civil society organizations of the United States have generated a kind of immune response, restoring the nation to a healthy state. Think of President Richard Nixon and Watergate. Think of the time when, in 1954, Joseph N. Welch, the attorney general of the United States Army, reprimanded the fascist-leaning Senator Joseph McCarthy, mildly protesting his indiscretions during the trial, saying: “You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency, at last, sir?
It is impossible to call Iran ruled by Islamic clerics, with its record of domestic and international violence, as heroic. But the possibility of Trump being able to destroy another country and impose his personal will and power on another nation has been more frightening than the stalemate or even the shameful end of the war for the United States.
If Trump is not restrained now, imagine how his impulsive and dangerous nature has increased his sense of impulse, favoritism and willful impunity after the Iran defeat. Neither the United States nor the world can afford the presidency of the United States to become a cancerous dictatorship that continues to grow and spread throughout the world.
And for those who believe that the United States is protecting Israel properly, I have two answers. The United States under Trump is doubling down on the mistakes of the Biden administration, essentially playing a junior ally with endless pockets for Israel that has become addicted to perpetual war as a substitute for politics and reason in its region, empowering and emboldening another bad politician, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in the process. Netanyahu seems to believe in nothing more than a strategy towards Israel’s neighbors that includes the ominous name of “cutting the grass” to erase any Arab opposition to Israeli policies.
But that approach tends to fail. This is not only because Israel’s neighbors are undesirable but because, as Israeli brutality escalates in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and elsewhere, the eventual rebirth of movements that believe they have the right to retaliate is guaranteed.
At the same time, however Netanyahu can be happy with this moment, rejoicing in the fact that he seems to have fulfilled his 40-year dream of bringing Iran to its knees, Israelis and people who care about the future security of the country should be worried about the future in which Washington has lost most of its other alliances, its position in the world has fallen in its financial pursuits and led to the loss of military resources. a badly judged war. The United States, cut short to the tune of another $200 billion, as the White House has just requested for its foolish war, will not be able to spend on proper and comprehensive security needs, whether in the Middle East or elsewhere.
In fact, China and Russia stand to be the biggest beneficiaries of this conflict. Already, the ongoing war is undermining Washington’s security posture in Asia, and rising oil prices have made financing the war in Ukraine much easier for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The United States even stands to emerge weak in the Middle East. That’s because the whole logic of the semi-basic alliances that bind the Gulf states to Washington is that the alliance can provide them with security against Tehran. But missile and drone attacks from Iran have shown this to be completely untrue. The Gulf states have allowed the US military to use their territories to launch ground-based missile attacks against Iran, and Tehran is making them pay the price with destroyed airports, the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and the destruction of their vision of becoming an international haven for tourism, sports, and finance.
The way to end this war is not with bombs but by reducing tensions and finally ensuring security for all in the Middle East. That includes Iran. The world was close to such an outcome under the plans negotiated by the Obama administration to control Iran’s nuclear program. Trump started the war though some of his intelligence reports he agreed there was no immediate threat. Finding a way to get back to talking and reassuring each other will be very difficult, but that is the only way forward.
