President Prudent

What is Trump’s plan as Iran plays hardball?

Photo: AFP/IMAGEBANK

The fighter jets had already taken off, and the battleships were maneuvering into position. The final countdown toward an American military strike on Iran had begun when President Trump gave the order to call off the operation. No one knows exactly what went through his mind in those moments. In an interview days later, Trump said he decided to change course when he was told that 150 people would die as a result of the strike, which was planned after Iran downed an American drone.

But perhaps there was another thought that crossed the president’s mind. In two words: America First. On the campaign trail, Trump promised voters again and again that he would not get involved in military conflicts abroad that cost taxpayers trillions of dollars without achieving tangible results.

Or perhaps Trump was thinking of these three words: death and sand. That’s what the president called the Middle East in his last State of the Union address, implying that as far as he’s concerned, the region is somebody else’s problem.

The truth is that the cancellation of the strike adheres better to Trump’s ideology than entering into an unplanned military confrontation. An open conflict with the Iranians would serve the interests of the ayatollahs in Tehran much more than America. On Sunday, reports had already surfaced that the United States had carried out a cyberattack on Iranian military infrastructure — a far simpler and safer option than a missile strike.