Trump pushed the reset button. This is 'Iran Fiasco 2.0.' - David Ignatius WaPo
Three words of advice for President Donald Trump as he tries to extricate himself from the mess of the Iran war: Just stop talking. Let America’s overwhelming military and economic power do the work.
Trump’s daily barrage of bluster and braggadocio amounts to negotiating with himself. He declares victory one day, resumes war the next. He praises Iran’s leaders, then calls them “scum.” He foolishly announces a 20 percent fee for protecting the Strait of Hormuz and then rescinds the rash proposal the next day. Trump must imagine this nonstop trash talk gives him leverage. He’s wrong. It makes him look weak in the eyes of Iran and the world.
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Now zoom out on America: Trump is fighting an unpopular war with significant economic costs. He went to war with a poorly defined strategy and no good exit ramp; his negotiators floated an ambitious proposal for modernization of postwar Iran, but Iran’s leadership, while privately curious, has publicly spurned it. The memorandum of understanding that was supposed to open the Strait of Hormuz is a dead letter. So Trump has pushed the reset button, and we’re beginning what sadly might be called “Iran Fiasco 2.0.”
Job one is still to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and I’m all for the use of selective military power to get that done. The MOU’s section on opening the strait was sloppily drawn, with language that Iran took as granting it authority to control the international waterway. That sets an unacceptable precedent. By that logic, every maritime passageway could become a contested canal. If Iran keeps obstructing the strait, it invites a continuing military response.
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I’m usually an enthusiast for diplomacy, but for now, we should stop chasing the Iranians — through the front channel, back channel or anything in between. Let’s wait and see. The Iranian government is obviously split. A pragmatic wing signaled to American envoys in Islamabad and Geneva, and in many quiet contacts with Qatari emissaries, that they were interested in a grand bargain — what eager U.S. negotiators called a “golden bridge” to the future. But these pragmatists were attacked back home, and in the passion of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s funeral, the hard-line voice was deafening.
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