On Tuesday morning President Donald Trump stated that if the Strait of Hormuz didn’t reopen by 8 p.m. ET, "A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again." Right before the deadline, the US, Iran, and Israel announced a two-week ceasefire agreement.
Israel has continued to bomb Lebanon, causing Iran to once again shut the Strait of Hormuz. Both Israel and the US said that Lebanon was not mentioned in the ceasefire agreement.
Voices on the left and some on the right are calling the ceasefire a loss for Trump, noting the war has hurt Americans at home and Asian allies abroad and Trump underestimated Iran. Some on the right support Trump’s move, noting that the US and Israel did cause significant damage to Iran.
A piece in The American Conservative (Right bias) said, “The 4D chess narrative is a post hoc rationalization for another impulsive war in the Middle East and the failings of the president.”
“This war does not clearly hurt China directly. While China is to some extent dependent on Gulf oil, so is the rest of Asia. While the United States might be insulated from some of the worst consequences of the Hormuz closure, the economies of our Asian allies are not…Many Asian economies have turned to Russia amid this turmoil, bolstering the economy of another supposed U.S. enemy. So much for strategic brilliance. The American strategy with Iran has simultaneously weakened our allies while bolstering Russia’s economy and improving China’s strategic position. Needless to say, Putin and Xi see this as a win.”
A Washington Post (Lean Left) opinion writer argued, “It ended with Trump proclaiming a two-week ceasefire and opening negotiations with Iran based on Tehran’s ‘10 point proposal.’ There is rampant confusion about what those 10 points are, but the version released by Tehran calls for, among other things, Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. military withdrawal from the region and acceptance of Iran’s right to pursue nuclear enrichment — all conditions that should be utterly unacceptable to any U.S. administration. It’s far from clear exactly what happened and what the consequences will be.”
He concluded, “Trump gets to pretend that his bloodcurdling threats coerced Iran into giving up, when, in fact, he has so far given up more than the mullahs did. This was no U.S. victory, but ending the war now, before the damage got even worse, was still the least-bad option. In keeping with the now-famous acronym for ‘Trump always chickens out,’ the world greeted the latest serving of TACO with a sigh of relief.”
A member of the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board (Lean Right) said, “Iran having played this hand, the press now claims Iran owns the Hormuz Strait…Now the Trump administration and the Israelis have destroyed a long list of Iranian military assets that will take years and billions to replace…To say Iran is sitting pretty would be a misreading. In the meantime, what have we learned? No U.S. president is going to sacrifice vital American interests to international law—that’s my answer to those who engage in pointless debates about whether U.S. actions were illegal.”
In Al Jazeera (Lean Left) a commentator noted, “In every war game and exercise played in the Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz was shut. Did no one advise Trump of that contingency or did he not listen? And why did he elect to go to war or in his terms launch an “excursion” into Iran, repeating Russian President Vladimir Putin’s colossal misjudgement that Kyiv would fall in a few days?…the hubris and complete lack of understanding were apparent even before the Israelis rushed Trump to make a decision. His prime negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, lacked technical knowledge on nuclear weapons, which made them ineffective in negotiations with the Iranians. The White House misjudged and grossly exaggerated the time it would take for Iran to field a nuclear weapon and advanced long-range missiles…Now, reality has taken hold. Winning every battle does not win the war.”
.png.webp)
