Trump pledged to end forever wars. Now he has embarked on a conflict fraught with risk

The US president's military advisers were unable to give him the assurances he demanded of a quick victory.

- Hugh Tomlinson

But he went ahead anyway, with no clear endgame in sightOnly days ago, Donald Trump reportedly clashed with military chiefs in the White House situation room when his generals were unable to guarantee a quick, easy victory in Iran.

The president demanded options to decapitate the regime in Tehran akin to the operation that toppled Venezuelan despot Nicolás Maduro in January. The generals could give him no such assurances.

Despite those warnings, the US president has now launched a war with Iran, urging the Iranian people to rise up, declaring that "the hour of your freedom is at hand".

"Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach," Trump said. "This is the moment for action. Do not let it pass."

With Iranian missiles raining down across the Middle East yesterday, however, Trump's true objectives are still unclear. Reelected on a promise to end American involvement in Middle East regime change and endless foreign wars, Trump has now embarked on a fresh conflict, fraught with risk, that could engulf the region - and his presidency.

Even some of those who support an attack on Iran are worried about Trump's actions. “There’s always the danger that his short attention span leads him to decide there'll be two or three days of strikes and then he'll declare total victory and walk away,” said John Bolton, Trump's former national security adviser, who has long supported an attack on Iran. “That's not going to do the trick here.”

Trump’s recorded address announcing the “massive and ongoing” attack scarcely bothered to make the case for war. Amid the brinkmanship of recent weeks, there were none of the urgent justifications that preceded the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Instead, the president presented a litany of accusations dating back to the US hostage crisis after the Iranian revolution in 1979.