Tag: Iran

NEVER THE LIKE OF IT

By Terence Smith

   In the course of a long journalistic career, I covered five Presidents: three Republicans, two Democrats; all interesting, each very different.

   The five were Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. I told stories about their administrations in my memoir, “Four Wars, Five Presidents: A Reporter’s Journey from Jerusalem to Saigon to the White House,”describing their highs and lows, triumphs and disasters, achievements and failures.

   But never in the course of all that coverage did I see anything comparable to what we are witnessing now almost 16 months into Trump 2.0. With mid-term elections coming up and another two-and-a-half years of the Trump Era ahead, it is worth pausing briefly to take stock.

   The common thread I see so far is gross incompetence from the President himself, his hand-picked cabinet down to his chief allies in Congress. Truly, I have never seen the like of it. It is a ship of fools. The sole qualification for a top job is total loyalty to Trump and his ever-changing goals and wishes. Nothing else seems to count.

   From shooting wars to tariff wars to legal wars to political wars to the remaking of the nation’s Capital in the Trumpian image, it has been one failure after another.

   Let’s take stock: 

   Iran: a costly stalemate at best, with no prospect of the promised regime change or lasting peace. Renewed fighting is distinctly possible.

   Ukraine: a bloody standoff that Trump promised would be settled in his first 24 hours in office. Both Russia and Ukraine are hurting, but neither can find a way out.

   Gaza: Remember the war in Gaza? It has disappeared from the headlines, but remains a fragile truce with little prospect of progress or relief. The trumpeted Board of Peace is supposedly in charge.

   Venezuela: a puppet government continues many of the policies of the deposed Maduro regime, although some political prisoners have been released. Trump’s interest seems to be oil, and only oil.

   The “war on drugs”: a total of 192 persons have been killed and more than 58 alleged drug boats destroyed since September with no known evidence of change in what the White House describes as “narco terrorism.” Critics decry the “extra-judicial” killings.

   Tariffs: most have been reversed by courts, which have ordered $120 billion returned to the importers who paid them. 

   Cabinet secretaries: Three have been fired so far, all women; others are clearly in jeopardy. 

   Federal Departments: critically short of staff and support after the DOGE cuts and anti-DEI policies. Elon Musk promised to “move fast and break things,” and he did.

   Remaking of Washington D.C.: from the demolished East Wing of the White House to the triumphal arch planned for Arlington to the now-shuttered Trump Kennedy Center, Trump’s frowning image is omni-present. The reflecting pool between the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument is being painted “American flag blue” for the upcoming 250th Anniversary party. Call it Trump D.C.

   One other thing: when Trump turns the light out at night, does he realize he has been suckered by Bibi Netanyahu?

   All in All, a remarkable record not half way through the Trump 2.0, with more to come.

A WAR WITHOUT END?

By TERENCE SMITH

   Having covered four wars on three continents over two decades, I have never seen such an ill-planned, thoughtless,  unrealistic conflict comparable to the current U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran.

   I wrote about two Israeli-Arab wars, the decade-long travesty in Vietnam and the short-but-bloody 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus in my 2021 memoir, “Four Wars, Five Presidents, A Reporter’s Journey from Jerusalem to Saigon to the White House.” None of the four wars resulted in a lasting, genine peace, but none was as chaotic and capricious as the ongoing fracas in the Persian Gulf.

   Nor did any of the five Presidents I covered ever describe the conflicts as “an excursion,” or publicly offer such confused and contradictory goals and outcomes as President Trump has put forward in the last four weeks. He clearly does not know what he is doing.

   The 1967 Six Day War between Israel and her Arab neighbors lasted less than a week and ended in a ceasefire that was a prelude to the 1973 Yom Kippur War that lasted 19 days and set the stage for eventual peace agreements between Israel and Egypt and Jordan that continue to this day.  

   The agony that was the U.S. role in Vietnam lasted a decade. It was based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the country and its history —the so-called domino theory, the notion that if communists took over South Vietnam, the rest of Indochina would fall like dominos on a board. Nothing of the kind happened, of course, and today Washington and Hanoi are at peace. 

   The Turkish invasion of Cyprus, by contrast, led to the occupation of 40 per cent of that beautiful island, an occupation that continues to this day. 

   Wars are not pretty, of course, nor simple, but the U.S. and Israel find themselves in a dilemma of their own making in the ongoing battle with Iran. Both President Trump and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu had their own political reasons to launch this war when they did, but neither has been able to provide a coherent rationale and justification for this fast-spreading conflict.

   Nor is there any clear path to a conclusion. Iran has, predictably, rejected President Trump’s 15-point proposed peace plan and issued its own set of unrealistic demands before it will end the fighting. Meanwhile, thousands more U.S. troops are on their way to the Persian Gulf, the bombing and missile exchanges continue, Lebanon is being pummeled, people are being killed on both sides and the stakes keep getting higher.

   The only clear lesson Trump seems to have learned so far is that Iran is no Venezuela, and that this “excursion” will not be as easy or brief as he hoped and predicted.