Gaski: U.S. Military Wins, Trump Surrender
by John F. Gaski, Ph.D.
The way Donald Trump has faltered on Iran is far beyond what we could have foreseen. The latest Iran pseudo-negotiations represent another surrender by President Trump. We never thought he would cave to Iran as Biden and Obama did, but it now appears that he doesn’t have the stomach to “finish the job.” Maybe he still imagines that a Nobel Peace Prize is achievable.
Trump actually has surrendered several times to Iran following the U.S. military’s overwhelming victory over the Iranian regime. His first surrender was the ceasefire. When did Trump forget the principle that it is counterproductive and feckless to bestow such relief when the enemy is losing? ran celebrated the ceasefire as a major victory, and still does.
Pausing the Project Freedom shipping escort was another surrender. Now, even attempting to negotiate with Iran is defeatist and maybe the worst surrender of all. The U.S. side should not even entertain the possibility of negotiation because it cedes the tactical home-field advantage to Iran and is a default victory for them as a delay device. (This is obvious to nearly everyone but Mr. Trump, apparently.) There is nothing to negotiate. The correct model: Our side dictates terms, and Iran either accepts or their regime is extinguished. Pragmatically, the sooner this mess is finished, the farther in the rear-view mirror it is for November American voters — so Trump’s errors also amount to an inadvertent political surrender.
To execute or even consider an actual deal with Iran is a further capitulation, another case of letting Iran get up off the mat. After all this time, only a “memo of understanding” and an additional 60-day reprieve? The content of any deal would itself constitute an American surrender because it would inevitably rely on Iran’s compliance and meaningless, bad-faith promises, to some extent. Relying on compliance and promises by the Iranians is clearly worthless, gaining little or nothing in return for another surrender. We now witness that additional surrender with our committed removal of the naval blockade and the oil revenue it will yield for Iran, in return for a piece of paper. In fact, the overall Memorandum of Understanding does embody a substantive negotiation surrender by the Trump side. Shades of Neville Chamberlain.
Trump’s biggest strategic mistake has been to believe that an agreement with the Iranian regime is even desirable. There can be no such thing as a good deal with Iran. Negotiating with Iran at all is not only a surrender but a blunder of the first magnitude. Trump fancies himself a great negotiator. Beyond the error of negotiating with terrorists in the first place, our president is proving to be 1) out of his depth in going up against the Persian rug merchant descendants, and 2) one of the worst international negotiators ever. Evidence: Only a clumsy bungler like Trump could alienate Israel at a time like this, while discarding a victory. President Trump actually believes that his commercial negotiating approach could translate effectively to the case of fanatical Islamo-fascist opponents. The scale of damage wrought may even surpass Trump’s heavy-handed failures with Greenland and Ukraine, unfortunately.
And why has he given a free pass to the Iran Revolutionary Guard rank and file? Why are we not hitting their positions or partnering with Israel in erasing more of their leaders? Another pitiful surrender. Likewise, but perhaps more deplorable, is the way our president has recently taken the rhetorical side of Iran and Hezbollah against Israel in his desperation for a deal. Who the hell is giving Trump such terrible advice, or is he just chickening out again?
Moreover, concerning those worthless promises, even if Iran’s enriched uranium is literally removed from the country, what is to prevent the regime from replacing it? At least Trump has finally realized that we must require Iran not to purchase such re-supply, but what about receiving re-supply as a donation from China or Russia? That loophole prospect is not quite covered in the American “one-page” intended deal as disclosed. Hence, the quixotic futility of Trump trying to negotiate with Iran.
Currently, President Trump’s too-generous 60-day extension qua surrender means Iran will get its dual wishes of more delay and derived political problems within the U.S. abutting the November elections. One prospective and tragic result is that American troops, in the inevitable combat sequel, will pay the ultimate price because Donald Trump is allowing Iran time to re-arm. What besides new armaments does Trump think has been in those rail caravans arriving in Iran from China?
For one of the few times in his unique public career, Donald Trump has opted to serve political aims rather than the national interest. His undoing may be in his neglect of one pertinent strategic detail: i.e., in military conflict, the enemy gets a vote. In this case, Iran’s vote will likely be to initiate surprise “kinetic” activity right before the U.S. midterm elections, possibly through its Hezbollah proxies — a gift courtesy of President Trump himself, who should have finished the job as he promised but chose not to for mysterious reasons. America and the world will suffer for that lapse for decades to come. To describe Trump as dithering would be too charitable. He has been played, stalled, stiffed, manipulated, and publicly humiliated by Iran, just as the other weak presidents he has criticized. Of course, the Iranian leaders will now smugly claim victory.
Maybe Trump’s ultimate surrender will be the release of impounded funds to Iran (but not “until further notice,” per his cover story). That atrocity will signal the Trump stewardship’s descent to the Obama-Biden level, as he, too, would then become a major financier of Iran-supported terrorism. One suggestion, and we can only hope Mr. Trump thinks of it himself: Whatever funds are released to the Iranian regime should be reduced by the reparations they owe America, including reparations for the families of all Americans murdered by the Iranian Islamist government over the decades. A fair accounting should bring the total monetary transfer to Iran down to less than a dollar or even into the negative range.
After a great start to the Iran conflict, only abject stupidity could pervert a big victory into a strategic defeat. Heaven help us — as well as Israel and the Iranian people, who also are being betrayed. Ironically, the Trump we knew up until about two months ago could have written this item about today’s Donald Trump. The nation and the world need the old Trump to return.
John F. Gaski, Ph.D., an adjunct scholar of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, is a long-time registered Republican and long-time registered Democrat — intermittently, not sequentially or serially, which should dispel any erroneous impression of partisanship. For five decades, his research specialization has been social and political power and conflict.
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