No 4D Chess: War With Iran Helps China

We've heard it all before.

Pro-war MAGA commentators insist that every move President Donald Trump makes is a strategic masterstroke. The war with Iran is no exception. What appears to be a Middle Eastern quagmire in the making is not a blunder at all. Instead, this war is "really" about China. Another oil shock is nothing to worry about. It is "really" leverage against America's "main rival". Another open-ended entanglement is not overextension. It is "really" the opening act of a coherent Indo-Pacific strategy that the "America Lasters" are too daft to understand.

This is the 4D chess defense of the Iran war. It is also nonsense, cooked up by propagandists and consumed by those eager to believe Trump hasn't betrayed his base.