Iran war – Trump has put US and regional security at risk

This is Trump's war.

- Michael Jansen, Political Correspondent

A resident takes pictures while standing on the roof of his house covered with soot after an overnight strike on the Tehran Oil Refinery in Tehran on Sunday.

(Agence France-Presse)

A war to feed his hungry ego and polish his image. He has demanded “unconditional surrender” from an Iran which is far from capitulating. Tehran claims 6,000 years of history and is proud of its distinctive culture and resistance to external challenges. A classified report by the US National Intelligence Council found that a large-scale assault on Iran would be unlikely to oust the military and clerical establishment.Trump is an armchair warrior deploying in the safety of the Oval Office in the White House 10,200 kilometres as-the-crow-flies from the theatre of battle. Trump did not rule out deploying US troops in Iran: “Every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don't say it.” While no US troops have entered Iranian territory so far, at least half a dozen have been killed by Iranian strikes on US forces based in Kuwait. Nevertheless, Trump is ramping up his air war against an Iran which was weakened by the 1980-88 war with Iraq and years of US-led Western sanctions. These factors convinced Trump that Iran would surrender quickly but he was mistaken. The war has entered its second week and could continue as the Iranian regime is fighting for survival.

Trump has provided multiple, shifting justifications for the war. Trump promised to rescue the Iranian people from the regime after he had assembled an armada in the Arabian Sea after Iran's January crackdown on protesters which killed thousands. This was promptly forgotten when he falsely claimed that Tehran poses an imminent threat to the continental US. He said Iran could develop ballistic missiles capable of reaching the US, but experts have argued Iran is years away from creating such weaponry.