By Peter Trankner
Never before since the end of World War II has there been anyone in the White House who, out of his own inability, has weakened the West as much as Donald Trump. This is shown by the agreement to end the war that Washington concluded with Tehran.
You have to say it openly at least once: Donald Trump is in a collegial relationship with irrationality. The most powerful man in the world is unable to think strategically. The US president lacks the ability to weigh various possibilities, grasp the subtle differences between alternatives, and look at developments from the perspective of their endgame. The result of this inability is the agreement to end the war that Washington made with Tehran. The contract is a joke.
The Americans have not achieved any of their set war aims. There was no regime change in Iran, nor was there a capitulation by the mullah regime. Today, the Revolutionary Guards keep a firmer grip on the country than ever before. Although Tehran assures Washington that it will not build a nuclear bomb, it has always made this empty promise. Furthermore, the regime does not say a word about handing over its enriched uranium or refraining from enriching it altogether.
Iran has also succeeded in linking its own ceasefire to the one in Lebanon. Instead of dismantling the Tehran-Hezbollah-Houthi-Hamas axis, Iran has succeeded in strengthening its position as the patron of these terrorist groups. Iran will use billions of dollars in frozen assets — released by Trump without any Iranian concessions — to rearm its own henchmen. Foolish is the person who believes that the state assets frozen so far will primarily benefit the Iranian people.
Washington also assures Tehran of funds for reconstruction without demanding reparations for the destruction Iran has caused in neighboring Arab states. In this way, Trump indirectly grants Tehran the status of a regional power that others must follow. Moreover, no one believes the president’s threat to restart the war if Tehran does not abide by the agreements.
After seeing how contradictory the Americans have been toward Iran from a position of strength in recent weeks, even a fool suspects that there is no danger from a weakened United States under Trump. With an eye on the midterm elections in November, the politically weakened president will avoid any outbreak of fighting, no matter how strongly he claims the opposite.
Trump is currently trying to sell the opening of the Strait of Hormuz as a success of his war, yet it was closed solely because of the war. Who still believes his distortions? Hopefully, Abraham Lincoln was right in his realization: “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” Until then, one can only fear what else might happen in the White House under Trump. Trump was supposed to be the head of the Western world, not its circus director.
Never before since the end of World War II has anyone sat in the White House who has so thoroughly weakened the West, its deterrent power, and its alliance structure solely out of their own inability. Anatole France was right: “Foolishness is more fatal than malice, because malice sometimes rests, foolishness never does.”
