He is convinced that if he repeats the word “victory” in every possible variation, firmly and endlessly, the world will look at him in awe and admiration, just as he believes it should. The Revolutionary Guards, in his mind, will bow their heads and, in a ceremony of gratitude, hand over their stockpiles of enriched uranium for his safekeeping, because that is what he wants, and because their role is to please him and offer him tribute.
It is safe to assume Donald Trump does not know who Karl Marx was. It is doubtful he has even heard of him. But he is applying his doctrine all the same, convinced that existence determines consciousness: he dreams of victory and believes that if he says it over and over again, without end, it will become reality.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump
(Photo: Joe Raedle/ GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/ AFP)
Trump is the commander-in-chief of the United States military, the greatest and most glorious army, better equipped than any other in the world and armed with the most advanced weapons imaginable. But winning a war requires more than an abundance of smart bombs. Above all, it requires wisdom.
His partner in this increasingly complicated war in Iran, Israel’s prime minister, resembles him in his methods but differs from him in one crucial way: Benjamin Netanyahu does understand what is happening in the world. Yet with unmatched cynicism, Netanyahu maneuvers the American president into wars with no purpose, no feasibility and no defined goals, only fantasies for which all sides are paying a price.
For Netanyahu, this is the real pillar of support. He built his entire political career on fear of Iran, on the existential threat it supposedly poses. When the people are afraid, they rally around the leader. Netanyahu the politician would not have survived for years without the Iranian threat he cultivated, inflated and turned into a monster that must be destroyed.
Barack Obama, too, understood that Iran must not be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons. He said all options were on the table, but he never went to war with Iran. He secured the best agreement possible, and moved on.
Trump cannot secure a better agreement with Iran than the one Obama achieved. He does not understand the world or the geopolitical currents moving beneath the surface. He was certain this would be a quick, one-and-done strike, after which he would stand atop the world like the sun king, an American president with the skulls of the ayatollahs hanging from his belt. That did not happen, and it will not happen.
One Khamenei goes, another Khamenei comes. American intelligence reports reveal that Iran’s nuclear program was not significantly damaged. Iran still has 75% of its missile stockpiles and launchers operational, perhaps more. It has not moved a millimeter from its demands. Trump failed to bend it, certainly failed to subdue it, and the holy grail, the uranium stockpile, remains in its hands.
The Strait of Hormuz was open before the lion roared and the lioness charged. Then the Iranians brought it into the story, like a goat dragged into the house, by closing it to ship traffic. Now they are demanding payment even to reopen it.
Trump has now entered a new phase. He is calling the next operation against Iran, apparently coming soon, “heavy hammer,” while ignoring the fact that for now, the ax has fallen on Iranian civilians living in darkness and under bombardment, on Israelis living in pauses between runs to safe rooms, and on terrified Gulf residents as fire falls over their heads.
Most Americans oppose this war, by margins even greater than the opposition once seen to the Vietnam War and the war in Iraq. The economic situation in the United States is at a low point: inflation has climbed sharply, and the cost of living weighs heavily on citizens who cannot make ends meet or fill their gas tanks. When Trump was asked about it before leaving for China, he replied with complete detachment: “I don’t care even a little.” It was reminiscent of Netanyahu’s remark years ago to a woman in Kiryat Shmona who complained about the situation: “You bore me.”
Trump, who once owned casinos, is now behaving like a compulsive gambler: someone who has lost all his money, his home and his property at the blackjack table, but keeps gambling into the night under the illusion that just one more round will win back everything he lost, and more.
Trump was certain he would set off this week for China as a victor, the leader of the superpower that freed the world from the threat of an Iranian nuclear bomb. He thought he would cash in politically with the Chinese president and make clear who still runs the world.
In Beijing, Trump was welcomed with the cheers of a children’s choir, but behind closed doors his Chinese hosts made it clear that the celebration was over. He did not even dare raise the issue of human rights. He barely spoke about Taiwan, even though both issues are at the heart of American interests in dealing with China. Nor did he stand there like a bully and threaten China with massive tariffs.
He arrived in Beijing with his tail between his legs. They served him roast duck at a festive dinner and tiramisu for dessert. He did not travel to China as the great Trump he likes to imagine himself to be, because he has not internalized that there are no happy wars. And the Chinese, who know very well how to identify a leader’s weaknesses, immediately understood that he now needs them more than they need him. How the wheel turns.
Trump can say morning and night that he won, and praise his glorious victory, but sane people across the globe will never forgive him for cooperating with a bloody war filled with talk of victory, a fake victory in truth, and no decision, because there could never have been a decisive outcome.
Wars end with diplomatic agreements. Otherwise, all the bloodshed was for nothing. Trump failed to identify the moment when he needed to cease fire and sit down to talk, mainly because he understood he would never be able to reach a better deal than the one Obama achieved.
Now he is running headfirst into a wall. He won several battles and lost the war. Now is the time for aggressive diplomacy that also contains wisdom, or for a paved road to ruin.