Whole Hog Politics: It was voters, not Senate Republicans, who forced Trump’s hand on Iran
Key takeaways
- The truce is shaky, with hour-by-hour challenges that seem to throw the whole thing into a cocked hat.
- One can reasonably assume that the coming months will bring more of the same as the Tehran government wheedles everything it can out of the United States and the West.
- Some things are different now than when the war began at the end of February, though.
Why this matters: political developments that affect policy direction and public trust.
The truce is shaky, with hour-by-hour challenges that seem to throw the whole thing into a cocked hat. More likely, though, we are watching the micro-application of Carl von Clausewitz s dictum that war is a continuation of politics by other means. By harassing ships in the Strait of Hormuz that are not sticking to designated lanes — the lanes Iran will seek to use for extortion later — the Iranians are giving real-time examples of their demands in the ongoing negotiations.
One can reasonably assume that the coming months will bring more of the same as the Tehran government wheedles everything it can out of the United States and the West. That s been the norm for Iranian foreign relations for nearly 50 years, so why expect anything different now?
Some things are different now than when the war began at the end of February, though. Iran s conventional military and nuclear capabilities took an absolute thrashing. The Islamic state s threats against their neighbors will ring hollower for some time to come. But the Iranians know something, too: America s heart just isn t in this one.