Iran Found Trump's Bone Spur
By: Tam Stockton (nytimes)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By Bret Stephens
Opinion Columnist
Iran's military leaders have greeted the cease-fire agreement with President Trump as a triumph, crowing that "through the imposition of their divine and iron will" they had "humiliated American and Zionist enemies."
Mostly, they're right.
Mostly, because it's worth remembering that the current regime in Iran is far less formidable than it was before the Hamas assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Back then, Iran had potent allies and proxies in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and Yemen. Its nuclear program was intact and steadily accumulating ever larger quantities of highly enriched uranium. It had a powerful military-industrial base, a weak but functional economy and a government that — for all its repressiveness — was internationally recognized as legitimate.
Today, much of that is either gone or diminished. Iran is no longer within sprinting distance of a bomb. Its ally in Syria was deposed. Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis have lost much of their fighting strength. The Iranian rial is the world's most worthless currency. The leadership rules an unhappy population that — outside of die-hard loyalists — would almost certainly overthrow it if given the chance. Its latest ballistic missile salvo against Israel failed to land a serious single blow. Its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz strained, but did not strangle, the world's energy markets.
Those are real achievements against an evil, ambitious regime. Yet the outcome of war rarely rests on a tally of relative strength. War is a contest of wills. And in that contest, the hard men of Tehran appear to have scored a decisive victory over the vain man of Washington.
I write this as someone who supported the war from the outset and hoped to see Trump carry it through to a decisive result: if not regime change, then at least a deal in which Iran would be forced to relinquish all of its enrichment capabilities and access to the Strait was unfettered. Those goals were well within the president's reach, particularly if he had continued to attack Iran's military-industrial infrastructure until it agreed to terms, rather than conducting most of the negotiations after the fighting had mostly stopped.
But Trump got spooked after the regime didn't instantly crumble and energy prices shot up. He then effectively abandoned the war he had started after less than six weeks of sustained combat — combat in which the United States lost fewer service members than in the 1983 invasion of Grenada. He compounded the error with an almost comical succession of military threats and last-minute climb-downs, each of them signaling indecision and weakness to Iranian adversaries practiced in the study of weakness.
Tags
Who is online
177 visitors
Since they are hiding the contents of the MOU between Trump and Iran, you have to wonder what he conceded to. I still believe it will do nothing, will hold either side to nothing, and will probably be violated by Israel at first opportunity.
His first born?
After Venezuela Trump thought he was invincible. Plus he gets excited at the sight of things being blown up on his say so.
the taco war -
iran - 1
usa - 0
If so, they got ripped off...
Isn't Ivanka the first born? I think they would like her better
she's probably going to end up in a saudi harem ...
Don Jr was born in '77 while Ivanka was born in '81...
Ok, thank you.
Yeah...the Iranians would be ripped off
Well, it's not like we actually got anything in return. Apparently, we'd be paying THEM $300 billion and letting them enrich fuel for energy use if they take Don Jr., which, now that I say it out loud isn't as bad a deal as it sounded at first... How much would we have to pay for them to take dad too?
Another $300 billion
Congress will never approve it. They hold the purse strings.
The #1 Topic On JD Vance's Talk Show Tour
This transcript was generated using AI. Click any part of the text to jump to that point in the source content.
Trump is really running up against a wall, needing to do something. So, they came up with this memorandum of understanding, and both the Iranians and the US have put out very deeply conflicting accounts of what is in it. But, it appears, anyway, because J.D. Vance, who’s been doing the tour of uh talk shows to talk about it, has not denied this, that the US guarantee has guaranteed that it will um permit the thawing of $24 billion worth of Iranian assets that have been frozen because of US sanctions, immediately, and that Iran will have access to at least $300 billion of of money to reconstruct itself after US bombing.
And that was a condition that Iran said it couldn’t leave without. I mean, in fairness, they did just get bombed sort of out of the blue by by Trump while they were undergoing negotiations. And but that was also a red line for Trump is he doesn’t want anyone to think that he gave money to Iran because he had been so adamant that that was what was wrong with the JCPOA is that that thawing of um of Iranian assets was somehow this great gift to them.
So, he’s out there saying, “We’re not giving any cash.” Well, you know, what they are doing, at least talking about now, is giving Iran full access again to the international banking system called the Swift banking system, and this $300 billion pot of money, and so on.
Which, by the way, um it’s unclear where that money is going to come from. You’ve heard You’ve You’ve probably seen people saying it’s our tax dollars. Some of it, probably. Um maybe all of it, but maybe not. Um it looks like it’s part of a consortium of Gulf leaders. It’s It’s really not clear cuz we haven’t seen anything yet.
So, the one thing you can bank on is that if this were a good deal for the United States, Trump would be out there in front of the cameras touting it, right? The fact that they are not releasing this agreement, which is even just the memorandum of understanding, says it’s it’s probably not real great. And and again, I I I I wish I could say to you, well, if I were there, I would have done X, but there’s really not a good way out of this for the US. Um and that, you know, that should sit really squarely on Trump’s shoulders, not least because he refused to consult Congress even after his 60-day period under which the um the War Powers Act of 1973 holds that says under an immediate and imminent threat, the president can act, but only for 60 days, and he’s got to get congressional approval. And, you know, Trump just pissed through that. I mean, basically, he said, well, as once we declared a ceasefire, the war was over, even though we were still blockading Iran, which is a an act of war.
I expect the 'deal' to be worse than the JCPOA. Even if it is on par or slighter better than JCPOA, the incompetent, irrational man-child in control of our military has spent >$30 billion, lost thousands of lives, humiliated the nation yet again, inflated oil prices with the subsequent increase in prices across the board, only to fail.
And people continue to support and defend this buffoon.
'Unconditional surrender' what a fucking fool this guy is. How can any rational mind still support this moron?
Listening to Trump talk about Iran now gaining access to billions of dollars is pretty funny. When that happens under a Democrat administration the right reflexively and boisterously frames it as a gift to Iran from the D administration. Who knew Trump was so anxious to give Iran a massive gift?
He and his family and cronies will have their fingers in the money pot.
Obama's nuclear deal is starting to look pretty good. Trump is just like every schoolyard bully. You hit him back and he'll leave you alone because he's really just a pussy.
I fear what POS/POTUS will do next, just to get his iran surrender off the news cycle ...
his G7 presser today was a total disaster, even FOX can't spin it ...
Yeah, it was really bad.
"Obama's deal was SOOOO stupid because like idiots, they believed Iran when they promised not to pursue Nuclear weapons and were going to give them $100 billion of their money back and ONLY not allow any nuclear enrichment at all even for energy for 10 years and then slowly allowing it for energy as the provisions sunset after 25 years! Remember that? Pallets of cash, pallets of cash, it's one of my greatest hits. But the Obama deal was so bad, it was just terrible! My Trump Iran Deal™ promises to give them $300 billion and will let them enrich nuclear fuel for energy right now as long as they promise ME that they won't pursue nuclear weapons. See the difference and why my deal is just so much better than the Obama deal? Oh, and me starting this war in Iran only cost somewhere between $50 billion and $1 trillion in taxpayer money as we don't really know how much it will cost to replenish our stockpiles and equipment, so You're welcome America! God, can't people show a little appreciation when they get grabbed by the pussy, what's wrong with these people? I'm a star, they're supposed to let me do whatever I want while they stand there in silence and shame"...
But it was fair to annihilate a school full of little girls and educators with the one of the most exclusive and sophisticated missiles that the US makes.
Trump is denying the deal includes 300 billion for reconstruction.
Nicole Wallace just read the text of the memorandum. It is in there.
memo of understanding
Core Provisions
Immediate and permanent end to military operations – Both sides commit to ceasing hostilities on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and refraining from initiating or threatening war against each other CBS News +1 .
Respect for sovereignty – The U.S. and Iran pledge not to interfere in each other’s internal affairs Defense News .
60‑day negotiation window – The parties commit to reaching a final deal within 60 days, extendable with mutual consent Defense News +1 .
Naval blockade removal – The U.S. will begin removing its naval blockade and fully end it within 30 days of signing Defense News +1 .
Strait of Hormuz reopening – Iran will arrange toll‑free safe passage for commercial vessels for 60 days only between the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, with future arrangements to be negotiated with Oman CBS News +1 .
Sanctions relief – U.S. sanctions will be lifted on schedule, tied to Iran’s nuclear compliance CBS News +1 .
Nuclear commitments – Iran reaffirms it will not procure or develop nuclear weapons and agrees to resolve the disposition of its enriched material stockpile, with a minimum down‑blending methodology under IAEA supervision TIME +1 .
Reconstruction fund – The U.S. and regional partners will develop a $300‑billion plan for Iran’s reconstruction and economic development, contingent on a final deal NBC News +1 .
Oil exports – Iran can begin exporting oil immediately upon signing CBS News .
Final deal binding – The permanent termination of the war and other MOU provisions will be confirmed in the final agreement Defense News .
How will NT’s spineless conservative apologists spin this one?
weakly
They'll either run and hide or start dragging out old, tired Obama conspiracy theories trying to prove either there was something that couldn't be trusted about the Obama deal or something about the Obama administration was so corrupt that we can't trust anything they did so it had to be destroyed and rebuilt in rightwing conservatives' image. They're backed into a corner and the guy they doubled down on and are trusting to be their proctologist just put both hands on their shoulders during the exam. They don't have a lot of options other than to close their eyes and run out of the room trying to pretend the guy they trusted didn't just rape them.
I cant wait to hear the QAnon take. I think it will be something along the lines of Trump is actually the Ayatolllah but cant reveal it yet because he is destroying the Islams from within. .
Similar to the recent interview I saw with Mike Johnson, where he said it’s so obvious that California is cheating in the election but it’s impossible to prove. Trustmebro.
mike is his wife's biggest failure in her specific line of work ...
video of trump lying about the 300 billion dollars today
Reuters on X: "WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE President Trump decried what he said were ‘false’ reports that a memorandum of understanding with Iran ending the conflict in the Gulf included a $300 billion private investment fund https://t.co/AAR8VD6rmS" / X
Wow. The left line has now flipped to Trump should have continued doing the things that made them call them him a war criminal and genocidal maniac and if he'd only done those things, he'd have won.
But instead, he negotiated and stopped all military action like we wanted and he's a weak, traitorous fool for doing so.
Awesome...
If you could advise Trump, would you have advised him to pursue the course of action he has taken this year or would you have advised him to revise/extend the JCPOA?
Seems to me Trump has created a net loss for the USA (and the planet). Had we kept the JCPOA, and destroyed nuclear sites if necessary (benefit of the doubt for the 2025 bombings), we would be better off. Do you disagree?
3 months and almost half a trillion dollars of taxpayer money later, just to keep trump's epstein scandal off the front page ...
I wonder what the odds are that bibi fucks up the entire deal before trump's actual signing ...
Nope. They disagreed with him when he tore up the original deal claiming he could do so much better and then did nothing, they disagreed with him when he started an unprovoked war which wasn't the 'something' anyone wanted, but now that he went in and blew things up for a supposed better deal, they're asking how it's any better? Most rational patriotic Americans want to know if anything Trump did, the spending of billions along with American soldiers' lives, was worth it. And now we're asking the same of Trump loyalists, was it all really worth it? And the apparent response?