WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T UNDERSTAND ABOUT IRAN
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard are ruthless, but they are not irrational
The Iranian military and civilian leadership structure has so far befuddled the increasingly erratic US president who has lost the ability to speak straight to the American people. President Donald Trump, with the backing and bombs and assassinations from Israel and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu, went to war with Iran on February 28. To the surprise of American war planners, Iran responded by attacking US bases in the region as well as the oil- and gas-producing facilities of our allies and by shutting passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
The Iranian leadership seems unwilling to give up its now essentially useless supply of enriched uranium. The Iranians, experts in chess as they are, seem secure in the belief that a rattled Trump, facing political ruin this fall as gasoline and other prices soar, will decide at this politically contentious point to leave his ally Netanhayu at the altar—if he can somehow pull off a deal to get the oil flowing. More US and Israeli bombing of Iran—which is continuing this week, according to press reports—will not change the stalemate, nor will America’s and the world’s growing unhappiness with the bumbling leadership of the US president.
