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Trump's 'Mission Accomplished' Blunder
In times of war, the right words by the commander in chief can make inspire a population to even stunning sacrifice to win. Poorly chosen words, however, can undermine it. Last night Trump made a blunder of the second category.
Who can forget Winston Churchill's famous "Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat" speech, made just three days after the Nazi's invaded France, and inspired the people of the British Empire to resist through even the dark days of World War II until final victory.
In contrast, one of the worst speeches in American military history came when George Bush made the infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech in the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom: that May 2003 speech came *before* the insurgency reared its ugly head and we fought another eight long years untill the next president silently withdrew without any victory.
Last night at a campaign event in Kentucky, in an apparent attempt to fool the American people into believing this war against Iran had been all but won in 12 days (like his previous declaration of victory against Iran in 12 days), Trump claimed "You never like to say too early you won. (But) we won. In the first hour it was over." No. It was nowhere near over in the first hour. Not in the first day, and now now into the 13th day.
We've officially lost 7 Americans killed, 140 wounded - so far - and we're bleeding funding at the rate of a staggering $1 billion PER DAY, 17 of our bases or military sites in the Middle East have been attacked, 10 of our regional allies have been attacked, Israel in particular has seen more devastation in its cities than at any point since its creation in 1948, and the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed.
The Iranians have weathered everything we've thrown at them so far, and every indication they'll continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Short of a ground invasion (for which we don't have troops) or the use of a nuclear weapon - something that should be off the table - there is no identifiable path for the president to accomplish the sweeping and expansive list of objectives he has publicly declared, most painfully "unconditional surrender" of Iran's government.
No, Mr. President, we have not 'won', and there is no rational basis for achieving a victory in the foreseeable future. Our best move forward at the point should be sober recognition a total military and political victory is not achievable at a cost we could afford, and to eat some humble pie and seek the best negotiated end that can be found (and ANY deal will be massively complicated by our walk-away from the JCPOA in 2018 and the two false negotiations we employed in 2025 and prior to this attack).
But don't give us feel-good moments on a tarmac somewhere that we've won something our eyes clearly reveal we have not.
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