Barely a day goes by that Donald Trump isn’t railing on the media about something. It can be the hottest mid-summer holiday, and he will find something on which to flail himself into histrionics over; this is true even when the reporting is entirely fair. Thus it is with the leaked internal Pentagon memo stating that the damage to at least one of Iran’s major nuclear facilities was not “total” and that the strike may have set the Iranians back only a couple of months. Of course, Trump jumped the gun in saying that the site in question had been “totally obliterated,” which it turns out is a more apt description of the current Defense Secretary. But we knew and expected as such and it’s why he has no credibility before or after. He only looks worse now, and the latest crying fit only seems that much more impotent.
Today, there is new reporting as summarized by Rawstory about how the leak has really gotten into Trump’s head. He is “spooked” that it happened and is now afraid to really move on to another subject. According to one insider’s account:
“Here’s the thing: It’s rare to see the president this rattled by a negative story about his administration. Obviously Trump goes after the media all the time, but it mostly feels performative these days — and maybe it always did. This is different,” the report states. “The president posted 21 times on Truth Social yesterday about the supposed success of his military strikes. And at yesterday’s NATO summit — a moment specifically designed by the Western world for Trump to bask in the glory of a huge defense spending boost — he spent most of his public appearances repeating his assertions on Iran.”
Always one to grasp defeat out of the giving hands of victory, Trump is once again breaking the ceasefire by shooting himself in the foot. Indeed, Trump could have used this week as one in which to enjoy the fact that he has been much tougher on Putin lately, something that will actually impress fellow NATO members. Alas, it seems as though his mind is stuck on the failure, and he is now hesitant, losing his footing:
“Critics see a president spooked by a bombshell leak that has undermined his authority. Supporters say Trump is genuinely outraged by what he claims is false reporting and wants the record corrected. Either way — he’s using every tool in his arsenal to push back hard: Witness the hammer-like repetition that sites were ‘obliterated’; the plentiful use of surrogates like Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio; the vindictive targeting of the journalists and media organizations involved; the barrage of statements from both U.S. and Israeli intelligence chiefs yesterday that the initial report was wrong.”
Yes, well, conviction never wins out over execution, and the internal report put together by people who aren’t impressed by simple craters has been executed according to the standards set by the world’s best military. It is not the bomb’s fault, it is not the pilot’s fault, it isn’t even Trump’s fault; the Iranians simply hardened the site too well, and thus it sits largely as it was. No amount of Trump’s insistence that he “blasted” the place will ever win out over the assessment.
Today things will get even more heated when we’re told that to even question whether Iran’s mountainous defenses might have held up a little better than expected is an outrageous slur on America’s armed forces,”
Oh the fck it is. No, it is Trump who is using the military for cover, saying that any objective reporting is somehow falling back on the job they did. Everyone knows that isn’t the case. Trump is the one throwing them out there as if their mission is in doubt. It is not. The bombs hit. The mountain was hard. The crater was deep. But the installation was even deeper. The end.
We hope it is the end. About the only thing left is tactical nukes, and there is little tactical about them; only the firepower is a bit more limited than city killers. No, now is the time to try to draw Iran back to the table. It is too late to go back and erase the “totally obliterated” pronouncements. It is not too late to persuade Iran to drop the whole idea and go back to the guidelines in Obama’s agreement – now saying that we’ve proven we will bomb the country again if need be.
Anything else is playing with World War III, and no reporting on earth can change that fact. He can lash away all he wants, and will. But on this topic, everyone gets it – he’s rattled. And so now we are, too.
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“It is not too late to persuade Iran to drop the whole idea and go back to the guidelines in Obama’s agreement – now saying that we’ve proven we will bomb the country again if need be.”
For starters, Drumpf is NOT going to “go back to the guidelines in Obama’s agreement” for that simple reason: It was OBAMA’s agreement. And Drumpf was the one who basically tore it to shreds in his first time squatting in the White House.
Secondly, Iran’s going to have more than a few allies who won’t accept another bombing raid and who will be “requested” to tighten up their air spaces. I’m thinking primarily of Pakistan but Iran can always “make nice” (if just temporarily) and pull back its support of the more “destabilizing” elements in Yemen and Lebanon and the UAE while urging the Muslim world to unite against “the Zionist regime” (basically telling Israel “you haven’t seen nothing yet”) and its “protectors/defenders.” Our Arab hosts can always toss out the American military presence and Iran’s fellow OPEC members in the region can follow Tehran’s lead in cutting oil production, thereby jacking up prices for the West.
Of course he will call it a different agreement but it will look almost identical to Obama’s – – IF the Iranians are still far enough away from the bomb that there is an incentive to do it. Trump is already talking about a joint agreement for power production.
As for the others, there won’t be anyone stopping the US from bombing Iran if the US wants to bomb Iran. I still think that the US can do nearly anything it wants in the Middle East, especially on the Penninsula where Trump is now like family.
jason
Indeed, such an agreement is already being bandied about