Trump Announces His War Against Iran in an 8-minute Video on "Truth Social"
At 2:30 am Eastern time, Trump announced his war against Iran in this 8-minute video. He repeatedly spoke about the evil of "this regime" over 47 years--beginning in 1979 when the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini led the Iranian revolution that overthrew the Shah of Iran and established the Iranian Islamic Republic that would propagate its theocratic ideology across the Muslim world. Trump emphasized Iran's leadership of terrorist networks that have killed so many people, including some Americans.
Trump announced three objectives for this war. First, he promised that he would "annihilate their navy" and their military. Second, he said that he would "obliterate" their nuclear program because "Iran can never have a nuclear weapon." Third, he spoke to the Iranian people about how no president had ever tried to help them overthrow their oppressive regime, but now he will give them the chance to take over the government: this will be "the hour of your freedom," he declared, and "this will be probably your only chance for generations." For these reasons, Trump pronounced this a "noble mission."
This raises at least four questions. By what authority does Trump launch this war? Didn't he say last June that he had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear capability through bombing its nuclear facilities? Does Trump have a coherent foreign policy with respect to wars for "regime change"? Is this war part of a bigger global struggle?
The answer to the first question is obvious: he has no constitutional authority to start this war. Only Congress can declare war. Not only has Trump not asked for a congressional declaration, he has not even consulted with Congress about this, nor has he made any attempt to explain to the American public why this war is necessary. Now, of course, historically Congress has allowed presidents to go to war without a declaration from Congress, but some members of Congress have recently proposed resolutions that Trump cannot go to war with Iran without some kind of congressional approval. The critical point here is that the framers of the Constitution were clear that while the British king had the power to declare war, the American president should not have that kingly power. But once again we see here that Trump wants to be a king, or even an absolute dictator, who can declare wars by sending out a social media post at 2:30 am in the morning.
As to the second question--about Trump's claim in June that he had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear facilities--I wrote about this in a post last June. I noted then that Trump was lying, and that within six months Iran could be near to producing nuclear bombs. Now, Trump implicitly admits that he was lying then, because he says that he needs to "obliterate" their nuclear capacity once again. But why then should anyone believe anything he says when he lies so shamelessly?
The answer to the third question about whether Trump has a coherent foreign policy is obviously No. One of his signature foreign policy principles when he was campaigning for office was that the U.S. should never go to war in foreign places for "regime change," because that had so clearly failed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our American military personnel should never have to risk their lives in such foolish projects, Trump has said. But now, this morning, he said in his video that Americans will die in this war, and we will have to accept this. So what we see here is that when you have a dictator like Trump who is so erratic that he changes his mind from moment to moment depending on who spoke to him most recently, you will see him launching wars for "regime change" whenever some foreign policy hawk has whispered this into his ear.
It is true, however, as I said last June, that the U.S. attacking Iran can look like a "noble mission" if we see Iran's place in the global struggle between liberalism and illiberalism. Iran is leading a network nations and Islamic extremist groups supporting illiberal autocratic systems in a struggle against the liberal pluralist systems led by the United States. But it becomes a question of prudence as to whether a military invasion of Iran is the best way to defeat the illiberal network that Iran leads. How likely is it that the Iranian people will overthrow the Islamic regime and establish a stable liberal regime in its place? Or will the war drag on for many years--as it did in Iraq and Afghanistan--without a successful "regime change"?
And how can Trump take the side of liberalism in its global struggle with illiberalism when Trump himself has scorned liberalism and has devoted himself to destroying the liberal international order? Or has Trump changed his mind a few hours ago, and now he wants to promote freedom around the world? Or should we wait for him to change his mind again a few hours from now?
Confusing? Well, sure, but that's what you get from a dictator who is a grandiose narcissist.
No comments:
Post a Comment