'Whiplash is astonishing': Shortsighted Trump hammered for letting 'ego' lead world to war
The war with Iran has caused a "whiplash" moment for Donald Trump's administration and will pull the world closer to war, an analyst has warned.
The Mirror's US editor, Christopher Bucktin, believes the president's decision to bomb Iran in line with Israel's strikes has dragged the world closer to all-out war because Trump did not consider the longer-term consequences. The administration, Bucktin believes, is using its success in deposing of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as a basis for its attempt at regime change in Iran.
But the administration should have known it was not that simple, with the analyst writing in The Mirror that it was short-sighted of Trump to consider Iran as a quick win.
Bucktin wrote, "For decades, strategists warned that attacking Iran risked exactly this scenario. Iran could not defeat the United States in a conventional military confrontation. But it could weaponize geography. The Strait of Hormuz is barely 20 miles wide at its narrowest point. Every day, tankers carrying oil from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE pass through it.
"Disrupt that corridor, and the consequences ripple across the entire world economy. That is precisely what Iran is now doing. Trump either ignored the danger or simply believed brute force would make it irrelevant. Flush with confidence after the dramatic capture of Maduro in Venezuela, he convinced himself another regime could be toppled just as easily.
"But Iran is not Venezuela. It is a hardened regional power that has survived decades of sanctions, covert attacks and military pressure. Instead of collapsing, it has struck back where the world is most vulnerable. And now the president who declared victory in the first hour is discovering that wars do not end with slogans."
He added, "Now the consequences of his ego are crashing down on the world economy."
Bucktin went on to suggest the rhetoric coming from the Trump admin is also a startling change in tone, and that the president has caused further trouble for allied nations with his speeches.
"The United States may have sunk Iran’s navy. But Trump’s war has torpedoed the stability of the global economy," Bucktin wrote. "And now the president who swaggered into the conflict, claiming he did not need anyone’s help, is suddenly demanding that others rescue him.
"In an extraordinary overnight warning, Trump has told Nato allies that the alliance faces a 'very bad' future unless they send warships to escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. The whiplash is astonishing."