The War of Choice

By Wornie Reed, Ph.D

President Trump was reckless in starting the war with Iran, says a New York Times editorial, and I agree. That is “how he rolls.”

Trump attacked Iran without getting the constitutionally required permission of Congress and without getting the permission of the American people. He has surrounded himself with lackies who enable his authoritarian impulses to be on full display.

While Iran is widely disliked around the world as a brutal and murderous regime, many nations objected to the attack or have reservations. Before the attack, only 21 percent of Americans supported such a move.

And, of course, Trump did not seek a UN resolution supporting the action against Iran. I say “of course” because Trump has been withdrawing the United States from this world body. He has withdrawn the U.S. from the UN Human Rights Council and defunded participation in 31 UN entities. And his so-called “Board of Peace” is a slap in the face of the UN, as it is an alternative to the UN, operated by Trump.

There were alternatives to war. The United States could have continued with the negotiations, which have now been called sham negotiations, as sessions were planned at the time of the attack. However, I do not have much confidence in the negotiating team of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Neither has significant diplomatic experience. Witkoff is a billionaire real estate businessman with no prior experience in diplomacy. Kushner has the apparent experience of extracting huge sums of money from a foreign country that apparently wanted to do favors for Trump and his family.

A second option, instead of war, would be to go to Congress and to inform the American people. But it appears that authoritarians do not do that.

An even better option would have been not to withdraw from the Iran agreement negotiated under President Obama, which Trump did in his first term. The Iran nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was a landmark accord reached in July 2015 by Iran, the U.S., China, Russia, Germany, France, and the U.K. Under its terms, Iran agreed to dismantle much of its nuclear program and open its facilities to more extensive international inspections in exchange for billions of dollars’ worth of sanctions relief.

Proponents of the deal said that it would help prevent a revival of Iran’s nuclear weapons program and thereby reduce the prospects for conflict between Iran and its regional rivals, including Israel and Saudi Arabia. There were hardline opponents of the deal who basically argued that it was not tough enough on the rogue nation.

During Trump’s first term in office, he quickly withdrew the U.S. from the international agreement, saying he could negotiate a better deal.

Advertisement

In his recorded speech announcing the attack on Iran, Trump made unsupported claims. Among these claims was that Iran was attempting to rebuild their nuclear program, a claim which experts say no evidence supports. This would not have been necessary if Trump had left the Obama agreement intact. Between 2015, when the agreement was implemented, and 2018, when Trump cancelled the U.S. participation, the International Atomic Energy Agency verified Iran’s compliance with the deal on at least 10 occasions and maintained daily access to the country’s nuclear facilities.

So, Trump’s necessity for the war was created by him. Reckless indeed.