Feckless and clueless, Donald Trump is lost in Iran, unable to find a way out of the disastrous war he started. Once again, the US military is pummelling the country and, increasingly, its civilian infrastructure. As before, this unlawful bludgeoning strengthens the resistance of a hardline regime that cares little for its people’s suffering. How often have Trump and Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon’s wildling lord of bones, hailed a bogus victory? The president claimed this week to be “winning big”. No one believes him. Even as it counts the vast human and economic cost of his Persian folly, a watching world scoffs at US impotence.
Control of the strait of Hormuz, closed due to Trump’s belligerence, is now the White House’s limited, elusive objective. The grander US and Israeli war aims – eliminating Iran’s nuclear programme, degrading its regional militias, regime change – are less attainable than ever. It’s Trump’s craven leadership that renders US forces ineffective, not the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. If Iran really is the existential menace he claims, the logical course would be all-out conquest. When George W Bush decided Iraq posed unacceptable dangers, he invaded with 170,000 ground troops. It was a catastrophe. But at least Bush had balls. » | Simon Tisdall | Saturday, July 18, 2026
I am no military man. Far from it. But it seems to me that Trump hasn’t got a snowball’s chance in hell of winning this war against Iran. Why? Because Trump doesn’t know his enemy! That he doesn’t know his enemy is as clear as crystal. And I would say that if one is going to embark on a war, knowing one’s enemy is the starting point. If you don’t know your enemy, you have no idea what motivates them. If you don’t know what motivates them, you haven’t got a hope of winning the war!
More than this, this war is complicated even further by the fact that, when all is said and done, this is a war with religious undertones. Islam is the backdrop. And in the case of Iran, we are talking about Shia Islam, which America has far less experience with than even Sunni Islam. Going to war against an Islamic country without knowing anything meaningful about Islam and Muslims is asking for trouble. As the old wise saying instructs us: Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
Without wanting to put too much of a damper on things, it seems to me that victory is Iran’s for the taking! — © Mark Alexander
