{"id":1921,"date":"2026-08-05T02:51:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T02:51:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=1921"},"modified":"2026-08-05T02:51:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T02:51:52","slug":"one-mistake-trump-hasnt-made-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=1921","title":{"rendered":"One mistake Trump hasn\u2019t made on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/amayei.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/2026\/08\/c-gettyimages-2288797571_jpg.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"One mistake Trump hasn\u2019t made on Iran\" title=\"One mistake Trump hasn\u2019t made on Iran\" \/><\/div><p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmsdonnp4000x27nt14nbagop@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">Unless Donald Trump finds a way out of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/08\/02\/world\/live-news\/iran-war-trump\">his box on Iran<\/a>, history may come to regard his choice to wage war as a presidency-defining error.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmsdyustx000d3b6rorb1j7il@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">But he has so far avoided one potential dire mistake: massively escalating the conflict past his capacity to control it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmsdyustx000e3b6r18h5n0cf@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">History shows that presidents who intensify wars in pursuit of a way out, or to protect their own prestige or America\u2019s reputation, descend a slippery slope. In Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, they often did so reluctantly, in wars that could no longer be won.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmsdyustx000f3b6rfd0v3nxz@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">Not for the first time, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/07\/31\/politics\/trump-iran-war-saudi-israel\">Trump finds himself<\/a> at a three-way intersection in a war now being driven by Iran\u2019s refusal to surrender or seriously negotiate.<\/p>\n<div class=\"list-elevate vossi-list_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/list\/instances\/cmsdyustx000g3b6rtctyhpwo@published\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n<ul class=\"list__items list__items--ul vossi-list_elevate__items vossi-list_elevate__items--ul\" data-editable=\"items\">\n<li class=\"list__item vossi-list_elevate__item inline-placeholder\" data-editable=\"items.0.text\"><span class=\"list__text vossi-list_elevate__text \"> If diplomacy keeps failing, is he willing to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/07\/17\/world\/us-military-trump-forever-war-intl\">perpetually extend <\/a>the so-far inconclusive campaign of air strikes, fragile ceasefires, and US and Iranian maritime blockades that rumbles on but doesn\u2019t end the war? <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"list-elevate vossi-list_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/list\/instances\/cmsdyustx000h3b6rk9swoqzc@published\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n<ul class=\"list__items list__items--ul vossi-list_elevate__items vossi-list_elevate__items--ul\" data-editable=\"items\">\n<li class=\"list__item vossi-list_elevate__item inline-placeholder\" data-editable=\"items.0.text\"><span class=\"list__text vossi-list_elevate__text \"> Or does he step up the US offensive by lifting his own limits and going beyond mostly military targets to take out Iranian civilian and infrastructure assets \u2014 crossing the Rubicon into the use of ground troops in limited operations? <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"list-elevate vossi-list_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/list\/instances\/cmsdyustx000i3b6r06uaj63o@published\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n<ul class=\"list__items list__items--ul vossi-list_elevate__items vossi-list_elevate__items--ul\" data-editable=\"items\">\n<li class=\"list__item vossi-list_elevate__item inline-placeholder\" data-editable=\"items.0.text\"><span class=\"list__text vossi-list_elevate__text \"> The third option would be deeply painful: accepting that he, and the United States, would be best served by cutting losses and walking away from the conflict with his major goals unresolved. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmsdyustx000j3b6rgqxj9kvk@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">Each question serves up unpalatable political and strategic answers, which explains why he\u2019s still stuck in a war he can\u2019t afford to win and can\u2019t afford to lose. It\u2019s a measure of the US predicament that the Pentagon sent a request to a group of military analysts for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/08\/03\/politics\/us-military-iran-war-troops-punish\">new ideas on how to punish Iran<\/a>, according to an exclusive CNN report.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmsdyustx000l3b6rx2cwk0gd@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">Trump\u2019s frustration radiated from his Truth Social account Monday after Iran rebuffed his latest gambit. He\u2019d suspended promised devastating strikes at the weekend after saying for the umpteenth time that a deal could be imminent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmsdyusty000m3b6r7cvtx7j7@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\u201cIranian Leadership is unbelievably duplicitous!\u201d Trump declared, ironically echoing complaints of the repressive Islamic Republic about his coercive diplomacy. By the afternoon, Trump was back to threats. \u201cThis is a last chance for them to sign a good document,\u201d he said in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmsdyusty000n3b6r0feu4j1g@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">But his warning that Iran would face \u201cdecapitation\u201d begged its own question. What will he do if it ignores him again?<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmsdyusty000o3b6rp30fds8r@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">Any huge escalation by Trump would be a gamble, since there is no sign Tehran can be bombed back to talks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmsdyusty000p3b6ryh7tn91j@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">Iran would likely respond to attacks on its bridges, power plants and other infrastructure by torching similar targets on the territory of US Gulf allies and deepening the war\u2019s economic cost. Regional leaders seemed to have raised this very scenario with Trump over the weekend. \u201cWe were set to go. And they called. And in addition, Saudi Arabia called. And UAE called. Qatar called,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmsdyusty000q3b6r13990e3y@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">In theory, Trump could use the US Navy to forcibly open the Strait of Hormuz. But this would expose US ships to missiles and drones. Ground operations against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/06\/11\/middleeast\/trump-kharg-island-threat-explainer-intl\">Kharg Island<\/a> oil exporting hub or to push Iranian forces back from the strait could be bloody.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmsdyusty000r3b6rg70q4brs@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">The last 60 years show how stakes rise exponentially when an air war turns into a ground war. The conflict looks different to Americans back home. Political costs increase as casualties rise, which Trump can\u2019t afford weeks before the midterm elections. And when troops die in the search for an exit strategy, their sacrifices can paradoxically extend a war, because those sacrifices cannot appear to have been in vain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmsdyusty000s3b6ru4sq7gon@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">Many previous presidents have reached turning points like Trump\u2019s. While Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and Trump\u2019s Iran conflicts started in different ways, they were all reduced to a \u201cbad status quo, escalate or leave\u201d equation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmsdyusty000t3b6rjam8cf8u@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">And no president wants to be remembered for losing a war.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"how-lbj-and-bush-went-down-slippery-slopes\" class=\"subheader inline-placeholder subheader-elevate vossi-subheader_elevate vossi-subheader_elevate--size-h2\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/subheader\/instances\/cmsdyvtjs001d3b6r3pj6udj7@published\" data-component-name=\"subheader\" data-editable=\"text\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">How LBJ and Bush went down slippery slopes<\/h2>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmsdyusty000v3b6r3e8e4d8i@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson wrestled with extending the Vietnam War he inherited from assassinated President John F. Kennedy. \u201cWe are off to bombing these people; we are over that hurdle,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/millercenter.org\/the-presidency\/secret-white-house-tapes\/conversation-robert-mcnamara-february-26-1965\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LBJ told his Defense Secretary Robert McNamara<\/a>, in a remark that partially parallels Trump\u2019s strategic choice. \u201cI don\u2019t think anything is going to be as bad as losing. And I don\u2019t see any way of winning,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmsdyusty000w3b6r401f1rtz@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">But Johnson still ordered Operation Rolling Thunder, escalated bombing against North Vietnam and sent tens of thousands more young Americans into the inferno. He should have listened to Under Secretary of State George Ball, who <a href=\"https:\/\/history.state.gov\/historicaldocuments\/frus1964-68v03\/d40\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote in an undated memo<\/a> that once the US suffered casualties it would be stuck in a \u201cwell-nigh irreversible process\u201d and would suffer \u201cnational humiliation\u201d if it stopped short of achieving its objectives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmsdyusty000x3b6r3jg3rsc0@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">Ball, who predicted the abyss to come, argued the US would more seriously damage its global leadership by continuing the war than by adopting \u201ca carefully plotted course toward a compromise solution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmsdyusty000y3b6rktuy58n5@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">The war ended Johnson\u2019s hopes of a second elected term, and Richard Nixon inherited the Vietnam War after winning the 1968 election. Many historians argue that he and national security adviser Henry Kissinger had already concluded that victory was impossible but that they fought on in the hope of defining conditions for a withdrawal \u2014 a futile attempt to bolster anticommunist South Vietnam and to avoid the impression of a US defeat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmsdyusty000z3b6rri8wn7qb@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\u201cIf, when the chips are down, the world\u2019s most powerful nation, the United States of America, acts like a pitiful, helpless giant, the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten free nations and free institutions throughout the world,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vassar.edu\/the-wars-for-vietnam\/documents\/president-nixons-speech-cambodia-april-30-1970\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nixon told the nation<\/a> on April 30, 1970, explaining his decision to expand the war into Cambodia. More than 20,000 Americans would die in Vietnam during Nixon\u2019s presidency. The last US combat troops left the country in 1973, and the final US personnel were evacuated during the fall of Saigon in 1975, under President Gerald Ford.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmsdyusty00103b6rr8o5umca@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">More than 30 years later, President George W. Bush <a href=\"https:\/\/georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov\/news\/releases\/2007\/01\/20070110-7.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">delivered his own wartime national address<\/a>. He accepted responsibility for mistakes made but warned in 2007 that \u201cfailure in Iraq would be a disaster for the United States.\u201d He announced a surge of thousands more troops to help Iraq\u2019s armed forces to fight insurgents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmsdyusty00113b6rhenwqwq8@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">History is yet to settle on a final verdict on that operation. The counterinsurgency did work in some areas. But the question of whether US casualties were justified is an agonizing one since the United States would eventually fully withdraw.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmsdyusty00123b6rltshc0zg@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">President Barack Obama was elected on a promise to end America\u2019s forever wars. But eight years after the September 11 attacks that led the US into Afghanistan, he announced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2009\/POLITICS\/02\/17\/obama.troops\/\">his own troop surge<\/a> to reverse Taliban momentum and to finally crush al Qaeda. Mindful of the escalation trap that snared Johnson, Nixon and Bush, he vowed to start withdrawing troops in mid-2011. Critics argue the finite timeline encouraged US enemies to wait the US out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmsdyusty00143b6r1x2ll6g8@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">America\u2019s modern quagmires shaped Trump\u2019s vehement critiques that helped him win the White House in 2016. Four days before he was elected president, he lashed out at \u201cwars that never end, wars that we never win.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmsdyusty00153b6rat4jag6y@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">But during his first term, Trump ordered his own troop increase in Afghanistan in a bid to finally end the war. \u201cMy original instinct was to pull out \u2014 and historically I like following my instincts,\u201d he said. Less than three years later, he blamed his first defense secretary, James Mattis, for the decision, <a href=\"https:\/\/trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov\/briefings-statements\/remarks-president-trump-fox-news-town-hall-scranton-pa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">saying<\/a>, \u201cI gave him more people for a short period of time, and it didn\u2019t work out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmsdyustz00163b6r43qyo2lm@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">Now, Trump faces another of the lonely reckonings that he encapsulated in his <a href=\"https:\/\/trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov\/briefings-statements\/remarks-president-trump-strategy-afghanistan-south-asia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">national address on Afghanistan<\/a> in 2017: \u201cAll my life, I\u2019ve heard that decisions are much different when you sit behind the desk in the Oval Office.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmsdyustz00173b6rmv6oe1n0@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">The Iran war is not Bush\u2019s. It\u2019s Trump\u2019s own. And it will determine his legacy and the fates of many lives beyond the White House.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/6419244\/Sub_Desktop_V --><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unless Donald Trump finds a way out of his box on Iran, history may come to regard his choice to wage war as a presidency-defining error. But he has so far avoided one potential dire mistake: massively escalating the conflict past his capacity to control it. History shows that presidents who intensify wars in pursuit&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/amayei.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/2026\/08\/c-gettyimages-2288797571_jpg.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[3621,126,2588,289],"class_list":["post-1921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news","tag-hasnt","tag-iran","tag-mistake","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}