Trump may be unable to end the war he started with Iran, even if he wanted to
Trump is now caught in the oldest trap of modern warfare – believing a swift, surgical military operation will yield quick, enduring political results. The Soviets did it in Afghanistan; the US in Iraq in 2003; Putin did it in Ukraine, and is still fighting. Whatever force a military fails or succeeds in applying at the start, the people it is attacking have greater commitment to defending their lands and homes.
The White House may have rushed into this, seizing the opportunity for a decapitation strike, provided by Israeli intelligence. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has very different objectives regionally, and a long US involvement against Tehran suits his desire for an Iran in rolling collapse that is no longer a threat. But the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on February 28 has caused as many problems as it has solved.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/12/middleeast/trump-iran-war-analysis-intlOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
Generally what happens when you start a forever war.
It's the only thing Republicans do other than taxcuts for the rich and fucking up the economy.
No no, they also fuck something else!
Won't somebody think of the children
Oh, we're thinking of the children 😉 - Republicans
Fuck them kids!
Oh buddy, you have no idea how much those kids are getting fucked. - Republicans
This dude started presidency with zero major crises, and has created at least three.
that's like guessing how many jelly beans are in a jar.
there's at least three!
Idk what you're talking g about, he started with multiple crises and has only made them worse: climate change, health insurance, student loans, genocide in Gaza, etc.
Biden was nearly as incompetent and evil as Trump, he just hid it better and occasionally threw us a bone.
Don't forget the Ukraine war and the ongoing social, health and economic consequences of the pandemic.
Trump is a dumb, racist, idiotic pile of pedophile shit, but US wasn't doing great before him either.
The
personpeople who down voted you went out to brunch the whole Biden administration."We'll push him left after the election!"
I don't see down votes 🤷♀️
And all he had to do was make life less soul-crushing economically, and people would have gladly lined up behind him to support anything he wants to do, no matter how awful.
But they're not. They're poor and starving, so he's losing everyone, including his own coalition.
But its somehow biden and obamas fault.
I don’t see why he’d want it to stop. He’s been actively destroying the US for the overwhelming majority of his presidency. If he benefits the US at large, it’s major news to me. A stone rolling downhill shouldn’t be news.
What makes Putin very happy despite losses in Ukraine.
His ego is his only compass, and he has tied the stock market to his ego. War and Hormuz being closed will hit the stock market. He may well want to back down when that happens, and find himself unable to.
Israel said that it worked for them, and all they want is sufficient disruption to continue their own invasions. Trump is the fool for so so many reasons.
Israel needs lebensraum.
Yada yada live long enough to become the villain.
You opened this can of worms, now lie in it.
He's already choking in them too.
And imo, ofcourse he can end this whenever he wants to. Strategically and morally this operation makes zero sense. Not that anything he's said or un-said, or started and or ( never) ended ever did. And no, I don't think Iranians will come better out of this. It's another humanitarian disaster in the making. He's a destructive asshole. # edit Iran not Iraq ofc.
And probably Iranians won't, either. ;-)
Oeps.. will correct. Might have something to with my déjà vu. smh
The intent was clear, I just like poking fun at typos. <3
Well, refueling tankers are falling out of the skies in the Iraqi desert.
He won't, he'll be long dead and we all have to live with the consequences
EVERY war ever fought was going to be over in a month with an overwhelming victory, and yet, it NEVER happens.
Except in the first US gulf war, back in the early 90s. (Kuwait was attacked by Iraq. The USA spent months preparing and then three days attacking. Then stopped when Iraq surrendered.)
Or the fall of the USSR. (Happened in about a month, no major fighting.)
Or the Russian annexation of Crimea.
It isn't that short military exercises never yield results. It's that wars persist until both attacker and defender believe peace is the best tactic.
The USA bombing a country for whom fighting the USA is essentially their national myth is possibly the dumbest thing that my country has ever done.
"Wars begin when you will, but they do not end when you please" - Niccolo Machiavelli
Trump, as an individual may not have a way out. Remember, Epstein was Mossad-trained and probably shared a lot of useful dirt with Israel.
But there is always a path to peace; and in this case it starts with the US backing off. Iran doesn’t have much capacity for war beyond protecting itself.
Exactly the same as how there’s a way for Russia to have peace in Ukraine.
The implication I haven't seen explicitly mentioned in the article (which it should be! Bad article) is "there is no way for Trump to stop the war without losing face and thus his power".
The reason they keep going is because otherwise they have to admit they were wrong. And probably not only wrong, but knowingly wrong, which equals malicious. And admitting that you're malicious is bad, even with your most loyal supporters. The only way to not have that happen is to just keep going and act as if everything is fine, which is what's happening.
The actual "path to peace" is very very simple, you just have to retreat your troops. It's supremely unlikely Iran will attack halfway around the globe with their infrastructure.
They've backed on tons of things before without admitting any wrongdoing, I don't see how this is different
basically what I was trying to get at. But I'm not sure that it's a matter of losing face, and rather that Netanyahu is holding some damning evidence (of the epstein files variety) over him.
as mentioned on other posts, the easiest way to deal with blackmail material is to just release it all.
I don't know if just stopping the attack is going to work this time. Iran was significantly attacked and will want some form of retribution in order to remind the USA to never do this again.
The USA and Israel will need to pay costs for peace.
The last time someone succeeded at that, it made the USA even worse.
Calling it now, when striking military targets fails to get surrender, we will switch to war crimes, Israel and then the US will start hitting water, food, and transportation infrastructure.
The only way to get victory from this war is genocide.
We blew up a school. It was war crimes from the start.
right out of the gate!
Uh, y'all already all in on that.
You're about 2 weeks too late for that, US&Israel have committed multiple war crimes already.
They already have been. I know that at least one water desalination plant was hit. Civilian fuel infrastructure has been hit. The US openly stated they're going to try to cripple their industrial capacity. Seems the US has adopted Israel's Dahiya doctrine which targets civilian infrastructure. I think Trump said once the US is done there will be nobody left to surrender...
“At some point I don't think there will be anybody left, maybe to say ‘we surrender.’ They’re being decimated.”
And we know the Zionists are intensely relaxed about perpetrating genocide.
Because bombing a school isn't a war crime in the US. It's just a Tuesday
It's not a war crime is it's the first time.
Wonder what new horrors the torment nexus can cook up.
Why don't the Torment Nexī ever just blow up and take the bad guys out?
They always reload the save when that happens.
This war?
The man isn't even able to prevent himself from shitting his pants.
Well, now we all know what happens when you make a felon rapist pedo the most influential person on the planet.
Special shoutout for all the virtue signalling sitouts
That fat cunt is unable to keep it's trousers clean from it's own shit.
So how the fuck anyone thinks that that waffling pile of dementia riddled syphilis can unfuck the murdering of schoolgirls in this Epstein war is laughable at best.
The only thing « they » won is a larger distraction from the Epstein files of a pedophile president.
They did?! WTF? Why isn't it all over the news?
War in iran
Does anyone have a link to the evidence? I have a few family members that really need to see it.
I wish I had. I recall seeing things here and there, but then they flood and distract, things get redacted or withdrawn again. Its so chaotic, likely be design.
In 2016, awoman testified that she bit Trump on the penis when she was 13, and the media dismissed it as they were sure something that egregious wouldn't be true and would have been reported on.
A few hours before the attack, Trump's email with Epstein talking about being bit on the penis by the girl was released.
Thank you. I appreciate you posting this. There is so much going on.
I mean, he could stop the war tomorrow by handing himself over to the Iranian authorities.
It is pretty endable. We just give them our republican leaders and any democrat leaders that were in favor.
There will be some sort of financial reimbursement.
Might be able to spin it around and offer college admission to their students to help bridge the damage.
Operation Payback: rounding up all political leaders who allowed this to happen and shipping them to Iran and letting them deal with punishment.
Considering they have been shipping innocents around the world to be locked up in prisons without due process, they kind of deserve it.
I second that plan. We are going to need to make serious amends on the world stage if we want to repair relations, and that sounds like a good start. Hold the parties responsible for all of this.
Honestly I believe Iran would accept:
The alternative is:
The worse/better alternative is:
Choose wisely, pedophile scum
There's a lot darker option. US and Israel tag team the populace in a genocide, shut down Iranian oil production while protecting the rest of OPEC. Leading to massive profits for Russia, some profits for US oil companies, and massive bankruptcy in Europe while crippling their manufacturing base. Which leaves the US, Russia, and China with functioning autocratic economies that can carve up the rest of the world. And the other nuclear powers are left to dismantle their own military to feed their people.
That Europe is the big loser here is a given. Which is why Europe really should get involved, today. But I don't think that the US is able to protect the rest of OPEC, at least not short-term. They are incredibly fragile and their infrastructure is exposed.
I think that the point for the US is to disrupt China. So that's the point, mess up the Middle East so that China has no reliable source of oil. Next, make a move on Taiwan. I think that China understands this and will get involved.
China already saw this coming, that's why they pushed so hard on solar and battery tech. Last year they dropped in 250GW of solar, and they'll probably do more this year. It's not there yet, but they're not as worried about this as you might think. It's a problem, but not a crippling emergency.
Europe on the other hand doesn't have good options. Regardless of what they could do, what they don't have now is the infrastructure to do it. And their biggest problem to clear out the Strait isn't Iran, it's Trump. European prosecutors are taking banking records from European banks about the Epstein files. While they can't prosecute Trump directly in any way, they can hand over anything they want to congress, or the public. In short, they are a threat to Trump, and he knows it, and he will attack anyone who threatens him, or Putin.
We could even throw in a FIFA peace price!
Onlyfans? Maybe pay per view
Trump can't even end his own bowel movements, it just randomly starts, leaks, and stops. I am sorry, but expecting him to control anything when he can't control his own bowels is an awfully big ask.
It’s almost like there was some sort of reason why no one else was stupid enough to do this.
I'm willing to bet this is Trumps and by extension America's 3 day special operation. And I mean that down to the expectation this would all be over in 3-4 days after the extensive bombing and killing of the upper leadership in the first day.
Instead Iran was all "nah we're good, we've been preparing for this day for 15-20 years". And started fucking up the whole region.
This war can go on for years... so you are possible right.
Iran gets a vote.
And that's it. This war is going to at least last through November because Iran now wants to hurt Donald politically.
Wars begin when you will, but they do not end when you please – Niccolo Machiavelli
Orange fucker deserves what's coming to him.
Except Trump will not bear the consequences. Soldiers, civilians and children, many of them on the Iranian side, will pay the price instead.
Soldiers fighting for the US deserve those consequences as much as Trump does. This is not a "both sides have victims" situation, all of the unjust consequences are directed at Iranians. If you're referring to how the economic fallout of this developments will hurt people in the metropole, the rise of cost in fuel and food will impact far more people in the global south in more dire ways.
The USA, not just Trump, has to end for any amount of justice for these victims to start.
Correction: the war Netanyahu started, and Trump followed along with
I hope it hangs around the neck of every feckless congressperson that votes not to keep their constitutional powers
He's going to bomb until he's bored and then stop. That's why it's going to be air only (maybe ground special ops), air only is easy to stop. Well the US part is easy to stop, then it's when does Iran stop.
Iran seems to making it clear they will not be stopping soon, regardless of what Trump does. Trump has been trying to send Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner back in for "negotiations" (they were in the middle of "negotiations" when Trump attacked), but the Iranians have said "fuck no, it's too late."
It'd be funny if Iran invited Kushner for negotiations and then killed him.
Well, "funny" for certain particularly dark styles of humour, I suppose. And probably not very productive. But turnabout is fair play, eh?
Idk, seems like a win-win
I suspect all it would really accomplish would be to get Trump to double down even harder, possibly pulling the trigger on even more extreme and wantonly destructive attacks. And I have absolutely no expectation that there are checks and balances that would stop them.
So not worth it simply for the sake of doing the funniest thing.
It's clear the trump admin doesn't care for anything other than political/popular "wins"(and hurting people/making money), especially after failing to meet their objectives. I'm sure he would talk it up but it would only justify the actions they will take anyways.
"His own morals".
You chopped my sentence in half when quoting it and reversed its meaning 180 degrees in the process.
You missed the point.
Trump can leave, but then everybody knows for sure the USA and Trump despite all the military hardware and billions are weak and can't force anybody, can't keep trade going and doesn't have any allies left to help out. You just need some backbone and cheap drones.
It turns out parasitic war profiteers like the military industrial complex don't actually make you strong, they just make you violent and take all your money.
Of course he cannot stop it now. The world and it's history is way bigger than the current blip that is trump.
Sleep now in the bed you shit on.
"War is not some kind of a video game." Nor it is a WWE episode.
Bastard now gonna have a "holy war" in his hands, and already happening almost at his doorstep.
Sadly it has a pretty good chance of affecting many people who never supported him as well.
War is a choice, he could end it right now.
I know the first thing I would do is stop shooting at the nation that bombed and killed my family and 100+ kids because they stopped first.
We have radicalized an entire nation against the US for no reason anyone can actually explain. The only thing we taught every nation is that we can bomb you and take your leaders captive if you do not have nukes.
Not just a nation, a whole region. We did commit genocides in Afghanistan and Iraq too.
He can choose to no longer shoot at Iran, but he can not make Iran stop shooting at the US. It takes only one site to keep a war going.
Good thing Iran has never struck at the US then. Although "good" might not be appropriate at this point.
The Middle East has been in constant threats and instability for the past century.
Donny boy has been living peacefully golfing and surrounded by yes men.
He's kicked a lot of bee hives.
Remember the last world leader who said it'll be over in a few days.....
The plan was to distract from the Epstein files at any means necessary.
Although distracting from the Epstein files and other domestic issues likely plays a part, it is neither the only nor the main cause of this war. Saying that effectively leads political discourse away from the actual cause: capitalism and its imperialistic nature. Even if Epstein reminders have some effect at the home front, let us fight the root cause.
Of course he can by doing what he does best. Not caring about those he made promises to and pulling all US troops out. The israeli fourth reich will make that difficult but otherwise he will just abandon everyone.
Also the heritage foundation, and people like Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon.
They can have him, and his entire cabinet and advisors.
I'd even consider all of Congress and the Supreme Court for dessert. Then we can just start over.
I dunno about all of Congress. Bernie Sanders, Ilhan Omar, Corey Bush, and Rashida Talib have stood against the regime since day 1. They shouldn't have to be handed over.
This is a great point. It's like the super powers of the worlds leaders, just thinks its a 1+1 = 2 scenario with war. Because they are so far up their own arses, they can't see any further than their own stool..
Yeah, we know. It's one of the (many) reasons we didn't want this.
Modern? Nobody remembers the blitzkrieg?
Yeah the genocidal maniac Netanyahu has zero intensions of a quick in and out. His whole strategy is terrorising the local population for extended periods of time.
That would be funny if it were not for all the dead people he will create as a result.
The US started this war decades ago. The "Cold War" did not end, it was merely renamed "Peace".
i am no expert on the subject, but it seems that this time Americans citizens will experience war beyond the occasional terrorist attack in their soil
Not sure what you mean
In what way? They will experience it in the form of rising fuel prices, sure.
yes, and will trickle down to price increase in other things exponentially
No, that's not clear at all. Unless you want to promote this from creepy conjecture to pointing out anything of substance..
Thanks for letting everyone know you're bigoted, evil, and bloodthirsty
Ah yes all the "bad" bigots are only bad because they don't have an excuse to be bigots.
But you have an excuse. See it's okay for you to wish death on innocent people because of where they were born. You're good dude. Everyone understands.
I love how now the Israel is blamed for the US failures.
Given how rarely any corpo media holds their feet to the fire, that's almost more interesting than whether it's true.
Both are at fault.
It's a joint failure. Israel is also to blame, as is often the case with US interventionism.
How did the Iraq war yield quick results? Wasn't the U.S. military there for like 9 years?
The military collapsed in a matter of days. Yet the conflict didn't end for years, which is the whole premise of the article and every conflict mentioned.
Because the entire army went home, the US wouldn't allow them to work in security, fired many of those that were working in security, and then did a big ole surprise Pikachu when the army just kind of became an insurgency.
Ah, so you're talking about the benefits we reap after the dust settles following the initial military actions.
That makes more sense, admittedly I did skim.
This will end the same as every other middle east conflict. We destroy the government and make 12 new terrorist organizations. But they keep trying to cut the heads off a hydra.
Lazy? No I was skimming while working, mainly because I was bored – I realize what I said was the point.