As Scott noted earlier this morning, President Trump has given up on dealing with Iran. I take it that he will now do what we recommended a long time ago: bomb for a while to complete the degradation of Iran’s military, and then go home.
As for the Strait of Hormuz, we can leave that problem to the countries in Europe and Asia who depend on oil from that source. We don’t. If it turns out that they collectively don’t have the military power to deal with the IRGC, they can learn a lesson from that.
The prices of Brent Crude and West Texas Intermediate spiked a little over 5% on the news. Prices at the pump will now resume an upward trend rather than declining, and I assume that means the midterms are lost for the Republicans. They probably were lost anyway. Trump might be able to help the cause by going on television and addressing the nation from the Oval Office, specifically addressing gas prices–something he should have done, but unaccountably didn’t, before the conflict began.
I don’t know whether the Democrats will take the majority in the Senate or not, but it would be prudent for anyone who contemplates resigning during the rest of Trump’s term to do so now. He may not be able to get any appointments confirmed after January of next year. The Supreme Court, of course, is most critical.
It is unfortunate that Trump dallied with the mullahs for something like three months. By doing so, he lost the benefit (the political benefit, anyway) of a brilliantly successful military campaign. I have no idea who in his administration convinced him that this was a good idea. Maybe the plan was Trump’s all along. But I hope he remembers who on his team understood Iran, and who didn’t.
