Trump’s Iran war victory boast has echoes of Bush’s ill-fated ‘mission accomplished’ claim | US-Israel war on Iran

It lacked the triumphant symbolism of George W. Bush’s memorable and later ill-fated appearance before Congress. “the job is done” Banner aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln six weeks after the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

But there was nothing misleading about the boastful claims made by Donald Trump on Friday in the wake of a military strike against neighboring Iran that, so far, has lasted a similar period and, by popular consensus outside the Trump administration, did not go as planned.

Ahead of peace talks resuming in Islamabad and posting wildly on the Truth Social network, the president declared an almost certain victory, insisting that all major sticking points had been resolved in advance.

“It’s a great, bright day for the world,” Trump said in trademark capital letters.

First of all, the Strait of Hormuz, an economically vital chokepoint that Iran closed in retaliation for the attack, will be reopened, allowing 20% ​​of the world’s energy resources that normally pass through it to flow freely again, eliminating a near-existing threat to the global economy.

Message after message touched on reopening the strait, which Iran has targeted as a central part of its strategy to damage the international economy.

Iran had removed or was in the process of removing mines it had reportedly placed in the waterway to deter shipping. Trump claimed that an agreement had been reached that the closure of the strait would never be used as a military weapon again; This was a striking statement, given that Iranian officials have long hinted at the sea crossing as one arm of their survival strategy.

This seemed a weak justification for a victory lap, given that the strait had been completely open to shipping before the war began and Iran had now proven its ability to cause international upheaval.

Moreover, according to Trump, Lebanon, which is subject to a 10-day ceasefire with Israel, which has been in renewed conflict with Tehran’s long-standing Lebanese Shiite proxy group Hezbollah, was not included in the agreement. This was also a striking claim, considering that Iran had anchored the regional “axis of resistance” against the West.

A clue as to why Iran might have conceded such a point is when Trump said, “Israel will no longer bomb Lebanon. They are BANNED from doing so by the USA, that’s enough!!!” statement came.

Although Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed that the Strait of Hormuz was “fully open” to commercial shipping, it was noteworthy that there was no confirmation or statement from Tehran at this point.

Trump was less enthusiastic in explaining the goals achieved by his decision to go to war, touching only on Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which the United States, Israel and the West have long claimed is a precursor to making nuclear weapons.

“The USA will take all the Nuclear ‘Dust’ created by our big B2 Bombers,” he said. wrote. “No money will change hands in any way, shape or form.”

Separately, he told Reuters that Iran had agreed to suspend its nuclear program indefinitely and would work with Washington to recover enriched uranium, which Trump claimed “destroyed” in bombing raids last June.

Given that Iran’s nuclear activities have been the subject of a protracted and convoluted diplomatic dispute for a quarter of a century, the claim that it has been resolved suddenly and simply seems dubious.

The nuclear deal, which Tehran reached with the Barack Obama administration in 2015 and was canceled by Trump three years later, took years to prepare.

By announcing that Iran has agreed to quickly give up its long-claimed inviolable right to enrich uranium, Trump claims that he is actually securing something at the negotiating table that the United States has not so obviously won on the battlefield.

Meanwhile, the Islamic regime – far from collapsing as Trump and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu assume – is still standing and determined to do whatever it can to survive; This is tantamount to a victory for Tehran, given the imbalance in military forces and the targeted killings of many senior figures.

In this context, how likely is it that the two sides will suddenly compromise? Peace for our time it could be. But this phrase has an unfortunate history.