For Trump, war is a game of tug-of-war |
Many mistakenly believed — or preferred to believe — that President Donald Trump disliked war, or that he was practising some form of covert coercive diplomacy aimed at extracting limited concessions from Tehran. While Trump may care deeply about a few non-military issues, on most others he is shaped by those who promise him quick victories and glory. Iran is one of those issues. His hardline advisers, along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, manoeuvred him into a position where war became inevitable with remarkable skill.
His statement to Axios was not a passing remark in a moment of tension; it was the declaration of a man who sees war as a tug-of-war rope that he can pull or release at will. When he says he has ‘multiple off-ramps’ from military action in Iran and can ‘control the whole thing’ or ‘end it all in two or three days’, he is staging political theatre as much as describing a military reality. He insists on being the sole protagonist.
This is the language of a president who seeks not to be understood, but to be feared. In this type of discourse, ambiguity becomes a weapon. Trump brandishes the prospect of a long war while simultaneously suggesting a quick strike, presenting his opponent with two doors, both of which lead into the unknown. He does not want Tehran to know whether Washington is heading........