The Iran War Takes Its Toll

The danger in picking up a fight with someone below your weight class is that one can never win because it may become a question of morality, not legality. It happened in Vietnam.

The United States of America is beginning to find itself in that seemingly awkward situation, again, in the needless war it imposed on itself with Iran. The argument is rife in diplomatic circles that Trump allowed himself to be pushed into embarking on this war by Israel, its Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and the American Jewish lobby.

The threat of this war has been on for some time. But most players in the rarified scene of international politics hoped it would remain just that.

Somehow, the boogeyman, Donald Trump, came back to office as President for the second term. The tough-talking real estate mogul turned politician decided that he would activate the threat, ignoring the unspoken rules that entailed carrying your friends, diplomats call them allies, along in the decision-making process. He ignored them all, especially those in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) alliance and even strategic partners in Asia like Japan and South Korea.

The United Nations, as a lame duck it has become, was shoved aside in the mistaken assumption that the United States did not need its permission to pursue its perceived interests anywhere in the world.

Before Trump, President George W. Bush had said something similar after the capture of Sadam Hussein of Iraq in the senseless search for weapons of Mass Destruction.

In that war, the allies of the US, as is the case in this war with Iran, made it clear that they will have no role to play in that chimerical search for non-existent nuclear weapons in Iraq.

The difference between the former president and the sitting one is that, at least, Bush had the decency to symbolically work with the United Nations, which, in the Security Council Resolution 687, ordered Iraq to destroy all its weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) – a term used to describe nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, and long-range ballistic missiles. He also had the US Congress behind him.

When Iraq suspended cooperation with UN weapons inspectors, the US and UK responded with air strikes. An invasion came after al-Qaeda’s 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, in October 2002, after which Congress authorised the use of military force.

In this prevailing case, Trump ignored everybody, his country’s long-term allies and even the lawmaking arm of the US government- the Congress.

Despite early successes in the conflict, the heat is beginning to pile on him as questions are raised about what exactly the endgame is in this Iran war. Experts are even accusing him of being excessively hasty in his decisions, failing to think them through.

In the midst of it all, Trump admitted that Iran had more firepower than was initially estimated.

American citizens who are experiencing spikes in commodity prices, especially petroleum products, are demanding further explanations for the presumed inevitability of the war.

The same Trump who said that America did not need help from anyone to prosecute the war is now literally begging for help to unblock the Strait of Hormuz, that narrow waterway in the Persian Gulf controlled by Iran that carries more than 20 per cent of world trade, not just oil.

NATO has made it clear that the Iran War is not part of its responsibility, even with the blackmail from the White House, which has accused that alliance of betrayal. Japan may need to amend its constitution to join the war. South Korea is baulking at the prospect of going to war, as it was not consulted earlier.

Meanwhile, China, the country Iran is giving exception to is not willing to lend a helping hand. That Asian nation is not swayed by President Trump’s threat to postpone his planned meeting with their leader, Xi Jinping, in Beijing.

Part of the reason why Trump is losing grip on American allies is not far to seek. His refusal to forcefully take on Russian President Vladimir Putin on Ukraine, despite pressures from the European Union, the misadventure in Greenland, and the needless misapplication of tariffs, are now backfiring. This same NATO he is trying to blackmail into the Iran war had earlier received some shocking, humiliating, if not disappointing, treatments from Trump and his team, especially the Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth and the Vice President James David Vance.

In most wars, it is not the antagonists alone who bear the brunt. The Iran war is not an exception. What the Islamic fundamentalist nation lost in kinetic engagement, it is using effectively in non-kinetic processes that have seen the whole world writhing in anger and disgust, all because of the inanities of a pretentious despot.