Iran may have found the move Trump can never play
Original article:
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03/22/world/iran-war-oil-trump
this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2026
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Yes the US has fucked up bigly in Iraq and Iran. There is a pattern - fuck Republicans.
But in many cases, the US has also created stability. The 1991 Gulf War was fundamentally a stability exercise - Iraq started that war by invading Kuwait. Likely Saddam would gladly have invaded Saudi Arabia, if the US had not enforced the status quo in the region.
The US was the world's policeman. Sometimes they did some shit, but sometimes they kept the peace. Over all, I think people were glad they were there. But keeping the peace involves force or the threat of force sometimes, and it seems to me that some people only see the violence or threat of violence, and not the peace created. As in the 1991 Gulf War, for example.
Iran's political leadership has shown far more competence than Trump's administration, no question. Trump apparently started this war without knowing that Iran would close the straight of Hormuz, which random people on the street would have known would happen. Trump's administration is literally idiots - not just people I disagree with.
You know when people said that, it was derisive right? The US wasn't elected to the role by some body at the UN. Americans decided themeselves it was their role, as history's great exception, to decide matters across the globe.
Also, hilarious to say the Gulf War was the good and just war and the Iraq war was a big fuck up, considering they were both the product of the same political dynasty. As if one did not inextricably lead to the other.
Derisive for some people. Not for some others.
What kind of bullshit argument is that? Bush I could have taken Baghdad but didn't, because he was not an idiot and knew it would destabilize the Middle East. Bush II undid the decision of his father - that was the act of overthrowing the actions of his father, not some long term dynastical plan.
Here is Cheney in 1994 describing everything that went wrong after taking Baghdad, which is why Bush I did not do so: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YENbElb5-xY
It didn't. Clinton did not go to Baghdad, and Gore would not have done so. Because they were not idiots, would have listened to the experts saying it was incredibly stupid.
Yes, that's how dynasties work. Inheriting political power produces stupid results.
Also worth noting that we backed Saddam Hussein through the Iran-Iraq war. You can't pick out this or that middle eastern conflict the US has been a part of and declare it "the good one". We've been meddling for more than half a century. It's silly to act though each individual event just happens, as if shorn free from the consequences of the prior one.