View from London: Donald Trump is now trapped in a war even he can’t chicken out of

Trump and Melania's faces are worried, if not frightened. Things have gone wrong...
Photo: AFP

The president is supposed to be a good enough businessman to know when to cut his losses and call it quits – he should go back to making America great again while he has the chance, ‘The Independent’ writes.

Will Trump chicken out? It seems to get harder with every day that Operation Epic Fury grinds on, and the president finds his options closing in on him. In the past, the world and, crucially, the markets, have learned that “Trump always chickens out” – or Taco. Supposedly, he is able to declare victory on his own terms at any minute. So where is it?

It is becoming clearer that Israel’s interests are not identical to those of the United States. Even for a “furious” America, the destruction of much of the world’s supplies of natural gas and oil would be a bad thing. So would a civil war in Iran, between Iranians themselves and other ethnic minorities. So, for that matter, would be pulverising Tehran into dust, Gaza-style.

On the reasonable assumption that, putting it bluntly, Benjamin Netanyahu duped Trump into fighting this war, will Netanyahu be skilled enough to keep America bombing Iran even when it is no longer in America’s interests – and those of the Gulf states, Europe and East Asia – to do so?

Trump has said he wants to preserve Iran’s oil industry for the sake of the future of the Iranian people, and indeed for the world economy; Israel doesn’t really mind about. For an Israeli government, that is a short-sighted and cruel war aim, but at least it’s an understandable one. For America and the rest of us, it’s a costly disaster, and could easily tip the world into a slump.

In the final analysis, America would be able to put sufficient pressure on Israel to scale back its offensive, as was eventually the case over Gaza.

But Trump is now in the ridiculous position that to get out of this war, he also depends on the Iranians. He needs them to stop attacking Israel (assuming the Israelis cease fire), stop lobbing missiles as Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE and Saudi Arabia (which the as-yet non-martyred ayatollahs seem to enjoy in a sort of nihilistic way), and, above all, to open up the Strait of Hormuz to maritime shipping. Trump will soon have to ask them nicely to take their foot off the windpipe of the Western economies and in return they will want some concessions of their own. These, Trump may find it difficult to agree to. After all, he doesn’t like “losers”, does he?

It is the kind of terrible trap that Trump used to criticise his “stupid” predecessors for falling into.

Trump’s proposition was to leave through deals, which was fine for him until he found himself framed up with a guy called Bibi.

The time to do a deal with Iran and chicken the hell out of there is now.