Vague and contradictory Trump says Iran war ‘won’, but not ‘won enough’ | US-Israel war on Iran
In one of the most pivotal moments of his two terms in office, wartime president Donald Trump made a vague and contradictory prediction Monday about how long the United States will continue fighting in Iran and what the ultimate goal of U.S. military action will be.
On Monday, with oil hovering above $100 a barrel and Middle Eastern allies fearing the regional conflict would deepen further, Trump appeared in Doral, Florida, on a mission to calm global markets and reassure skittish allies that he has a clear vision for how to end the biggest U.S. intervention in the Middle East since the Iraq war.
If there is, it was not mentioned in this press conference.
In the 35-minute call, the US president avoided specifics to reveal how thoroughly the US had destroyed Iran’s military and reinforce suspicions that little planning had been done for what would happen next. After vague statements to a CBS News reporter that the war was “pretty much over” in a phone call, he dodged a reporter’s question about whether that meant the war could end this week. “No, but soon. I think soon. Very soon.”
Reporters tried again. “You said the war was ‘complete’ but your defense minister says ‘this is just the beginning.’ So which one?”
“I guess you could say both,” Trump replied. He quickly added: “This is the beginning of building a new country.” Not to mention Trump and his top advisers’ refusal to lead nation-building efforts in Iran; Hours have passed, and indeed Trump’s vision of Iran appears to be changing with every phone call he has received from a reporter over the past ten days.
Thanks to the CBS call, there was a sense that he might be preparing to announce a decline. But here he stopped until the mission was completed and instead said the war would continue.
“Right now we can call it a tremendous success, or we can go even further,” he said. “And we will go even further.”
“We won in many ways,” he said in a characteristic moment in his speech to Republican allies before the news conference. “But we didn’t win enough.”
This was confusing, and Democrats were quick to pounce on the remark to say that Trump’s goals for the Iran conflict were inconsistent or simply non-existent.
“One word to sum up Trump’s press conference: uninformed,” wrote Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York. “He cannot put forward a plan or vision because he has no plan or vision. He cannot even decide whether the country is at war or not. He risks the world economy and the lives of millions of people with his whims and excitement.”
There were other reminders of how U.S. foreign policy is now completely through the looking glass. Trump said Monday he would ease sanctions on oil sales by some countries to help calm markets and reverse his policy of increasing economic pressure on Russia’s oil sales to help end the conflict in Ukraine. He later added that the United States may not ultimately return to these sanctions once global markets return to normal. “Who knows… maybe we won’t have to wear them, there will be so much peace.”
But in the most striking moment, Trump suggested that Iran had secretly obtained a Tomahawk missile and then used it to attack a girls’ school in the city of Minab, killing more than 168 people, mostly children.
Asked whether he would claim responsibility for the attack, which occurred shortly before the United States struck a nearby naval base, Trump replied, “Tomahawks are used by many countries” and “Iran has some Tomahawks, too.”
This was more than most reporters in the room could handle.
“You just said Iran somehow got a tomahawk and bombed its own elementary school on the first day of the war,” a reporter said, and then asked if “you were the only person in your government to say that.”
Trump replied, “Because I don’t know enough about it.” “I think that’s something I’ve been told is under investigation.”
