Thanks to Pakistan running interference, the U.S. and Iran have agreed to a two-week ceasefire conditioned upon the opening of the Strait of Hormuz. Administration officials from Donald Trump on down are hailing this as a great victory, but so is Iran. Which country is right?
That’s open to question, but one thing is clear: The deal had to be made by the U.S., on whatever terms were offered, because the world economy faced collapse so long as the Strait of Hormuz remained closed by Iranian thugs. As my headline indicates, the U.S. — despite having “decimated” Iran’s military might, to use a word popular with President Trump — found itself in a “strait”-jacket in its efforts to cripple Iran from having nuclear bombs and being able to exercise military might in the Middle East.
If I’m hearing and reading things right, the U.S. accepted Iran’s 10-point peace proposal rather than insisting upon our own 15-point plan. Iran’s version includes provisions such as: the withdrawal of all U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf area, the ability of Iran to control traffic in the Strait of Hormuz and charge fees for vessels transiting there, the payment of reparations to Iran by the U.S. and Israel, and other wonderful conditions.
In many ways – I hope I’m wrong — this smacks of the ceasefire Trump engineered in the Gaza Peninsula. As soon as that deal was announced, Hamas came out of hiding, seized control once again, and murdered its rivals. Hamas, basically an arm of Iran, was supposed to disarm as part of that deal, but has not done so and has signaled it will not.
As for Iran, U.S. stated goals in the war kept changing as the conflict dragged on, but one goal remained constant — to prevent Iran from ever getting a nuclear weapon. To do this, Iran’s enriched uranium was somehow to be seized or surrendered. The Iranian 10-pointer, however, does not mention turning over uranium stockpiles to the U.S. or to anyone else, or even giving up nuclear dreams.
So, what has war gotten us? Despite rhetoric coming out of the White House and other departments of the government, it appears that we have Gaza redux on our hands. We may actually be worse off after nearly six weeks of a bombing campaign than when we started.
Ouch! Someone please prove me wrong.
