In case you blinked and missed it, President Donald Trump is back to threatening Iran.
And that seems to undercut the idea that his envoys are having very good talks, through intermediaries, with the Iranians.
Just look at the tone of his Truth Social posting yesterday:
"The United States of America is in serious discussions with A NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME to end our Military Operations in Iran. Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet ‘touched.’ This will be in retribution for our many soldiers, and others, that Iran has butchered and killed over the old Regime’s 47 year ‘Reign of Terror.’"
Does that sound like someone who believes he’s close to an agreement?
WHY TRUMP, IRAN SEEM LIGHT-YEARS APART ON ANY POSSIBLE DEAL TO END THE WAR
I don’t think Trump wants to bomb the hell out of Iran’s energy facilities. He’s fully aware of how that would escalate the war and keep the U.S. mired in the conflict for many months at a minimum – a worst-case scenario for a man who campaigned against entanglement in foreign wars.
That’s why he extended his deadline by 10 days, to try to work out some compromise with what remains the world’s leading terror state. It’s hard to feel an ounce of sympathy for these murderous dictators who are responsible for so many thousands of deaths, including those of their own people.
The president told the New York Post yesterday that the administration has been dealing with Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Ghalibaf, saying we’ll find out within a week "whether he is someone America can truly work with."
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters yesterday, "I hope journalists in this room are wise enough not to take[the word of] an Iranian regime that has repeatedly lied about our country, about our values, about everyone in this room, frankly, for nearly five decades."
From the point of view of Iran, which was invaded by British and Soviet forces during World War II, all the regime has to do is survive and then claim victory.
The president is in something of a box. He clearly wants to end our military involvement in Iran, but can’t be seen as backing down on his threats.
Trump, at a minimum, needs two things. One is an agreement he can sell as limiting Iran’s ability to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. The other is ending Tehran’s blockade of "hostile" powers using the Strait of Hormuz, which has choked off 20 percent of the world’s oil traffic.
With the president moving tens of thousands of troops into position in the Middle East, he certainly has the boots he needs for a sustained attack.
Trump is, as everyone knows, paying the price at home. The stock market has plummeted, shrinking the retirement accounts of millions of Americans. The cost of living, led by soaring gas prices, keeps rising after an election that was focused on "affordability."
And the president’s standing has nosedived among young men, many of whom want no part of this war or feel they were misled about foreign wars.
Meanwhile, Iran’s military machine has been decimated, but it still has the ability to inflict damage with cheap drones. Over the weekend, one such drone injured at least 10 American service members at a Saudi air base, two seriously, and others have caused damage in Israel, killing at least 20 people.
The New York Times says "there has been little apparent progress in the negotiations. Iran has denied holding substantive talks with the United States and has rejected the Trump administration’s conditions as unreasonable. The war has raged on, drawing in much of the Middle East, sending oil and gas prices skyrocketing and fracturing Mr. Trump’s political support at home."
The Wall Street Journal reports the president "is weighing a military operation to extract nearly 1,000 pounds of uranium from Iran, according to U.S. officials, a complex and risky mission that would likely put American forces inside the country for days or longer." While "considering the danger to U.S. troops," Trump is "open" to the idea "because it could help accomplish his central goal of preventing Iran from ever making a nuclear weapon."
Trump is no stranger to shifting rhetoric. After vowing to block any oil shipments to Cuba, Trump let a Russian tanker through, saying it doesn’t matter because the island’s economy is collapsing anyway. An alternate take: He wanted to avoid a confrontation with Moscow while heavily focused on the Mideast.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth says the "hate-Trump" press is constantly playing up negative news. While the coverage has indeed been overwhelmingly pessimistic, I don’t know how else the latest exchanges between Washington and Tehran could be reported.
Hegseth, a decorated Army veteran, is taking heat for his repeated emphasis on Christianity, including, as the Washington Post notes, bringing clergy from his small Christian denomination to preach at the Pentagon.
The other day, talking about the war, Hegseth prayed for American troops to bring "overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy … We ask these things with bold confidence in the mighty and powerful name of Jesus Christ."
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It sounds rather melodramatic to say so, but we are at a critical turning point. Either some kind of deal is made, face-saving or otherwise, or an aerial assault is unleashed upon Iran that prolongs the war and raises the prospect of an Iraq-style quagmire.
If the Iranian leaders were rational, they’d want to avoid further obliteration. But I’m not sure they are. They are maddeningly phony negotiators who deserve whatever they get. But the consequences of an all-out bombing for America, and the president himself, could be just as severe.
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