Trump Still Thinks His Confusion Can Crush Iran |
It has been more than nine weeks since President Trump started his war with Iran, and somehow he’s still keeping everyone guessing — about whether he has any idea what he’s doing. Less than two days after launching his latest strategy for the very unpopular war, “Project Freedom,” he’s already pausing the operation. Below are answers to six key questions about his confusing latest about-face.
. Is Project Freedom already over?
Trump on Tuesday night announced he was temporarily suspending Project Freedom, the brand-new U.S. operation to secure the Strait of Hormuz that began Monday and quickly prompted Iran to attack American warships and other targets in the gulf.
Explained the president in a Truth Social message:
Based on the request of Pakistan and other Countries, the tremendous Military Success that we have had during the Campaign against the Country of Iran and, additionally, the fact that Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement with Representatives of Iran, we have mutually agreed that, while the Blockade will remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom (The Movement of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz) will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed.
Based on the request of Pakistan and other Countries, the tremendous Military Success that we have had during the Campaign against the Country of Iran and, additionally, the fact that Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement with Representatives of Iran, we have mutually agreed that, while the Blockade will remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom (The Movement of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz) will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed.
What a “short period of time” actually means remains to be seen, but Trump’s general sense of Iran-war time frames has been very unreliable thus far. Then on Wednesday morning, Trump issued a new threat on Truth Social that didn’t reference the new operation at all:
Assuming Iran agrees to give what has been agreed to, which is, perhaps, a big assumption, the already legendary Epic Fury will be at an end, and the highly effective Blockade will allow the Hormuz Strait to be OPEN TO ALL, including Iran. If they don’t agree, the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before.
Assuming Iran agrees to give what has been agreed to, which is, perhaps, a big assumption, the already legendary Epic Fury will be at an end, and the highly effective Blockade will allow the Hormuz Strait to be OPEN TO ALL, including Iran. If they don’t agree, the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before.
. What was Project Freedom really about?
On Friday, the Iran war passed 60 days without congressional authorization and became officially illegal. Rather than withdraw U.S. troops as required, Trump informed Congress that the law did not apply since hostilities had been “terminated,” and Operation Epic Fury, which is what the Trump administration had named the war, had concluded. Two days later, Trump announced that “Project Freedom” was beginning Monday morning, describing it as a “humanitarian” mission focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and freeing the roughly 1,600 commercial ships trapped in the Persian Gulf since the war began.
Afterward, U.S. officials who spoke with The Wall Street........