War with Iran would be Trump’s dumbest foreign policy move so far. From David Haggith at thedailydoom.com:
This week’s moves look definitive. All-out war against Iran’s nuclear facilities has moved up to the near horizon and is really already beginning.
Trump’s war with Khamenei in Iran
“Peace through strength” is a slogan moved solidly back into play by Defense Secretary Hegseth who just promised that war, which just became a lot more intense, against the Houthis will be “unrelenting.” Tired of the endless attacks on commercial and military ships in and around the Red Sea, the Trump administration has vowed that the Houthis have a singular choice: stop all attacks now or “hell will rain down upon you like never before!”
But this is much bigger than that. Only a week ago, Trump made the stakes clear in a letter to Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei on what the US says are its war intentions, saying, “I hope you will negotiate because, if we have to go in militarily it’s going to be a terrible thing for them.” So, with both the Iranians and their Houthi proxies that they repeatedly re-arm in Yemen, the president has made clear: Stand down and negotiate, or it’s war.
Trump has said he views the situation in the Red Sea as something his predecessor, President Biden, practically baited into being when he removed the declaration of the Houthis as a terrorist group, asking for nothing in return.
Biden announced in February 2021 that his administration was ending all U.S. offensive support for the Saudi-led coalition against the Houthis, as he pledged support for the United Nations-led “initiative to impose a ceasefire,” and restore peace talks in Yemen.
We’ve seen ever since how much respect Biden got for that gesture.
