Strategic Defeat, Completed
A News Link Round-Up
Here is the latest weekly round-up of links, following up on Donald Trump’s very dramatic backdown tonight in which he went from threatening vast war crimes against Iran to conceding all of America’s strategic objectives. Also, there’s some better news from Eastern Europe, more updates on the cruelty of the mass deportation state, one item which seems to require an apology in advance (you’ll know it when you see it), news on the ridiculous architecture of Trump’s ridiculous ballroom—and the usual antidote: more news from Artemis II on the far side of the Moon.
A reminder about this News Link Round-Up format: The main headlines are there to provide context and perhaps a little commentary, the headlines with the links are the original headlines from the articles, and the quotations beneath are extracts from the articles.
Strategic Defeat, Completed
Trump Finds Offramp After a Day of Apocalyptic Threats
Mr. Trump had been under increasing pressure to find a way out of a confrontation after setting an 8 p.m. Eastern deadline for the strait to open, and after declaring on social media early Tuesday that if he is defied, “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” It was a classic example of Mr. Trump’s chaotic, high-pressure negotiating style, where he creates a crisis and then uses his leverage to strike a deal.
In this case Mr. Trump appeared desperate for a way to escape his own threats and rhetoric, and to engineer a Pakistani proposal that he would then sign on to….
The temporary cease-fire does nothing to address the fundamental issues that led to the outbreak of the war on Feb. 28: Iran’s refusal to give up its stockpile of nuclear fuel; American and Israeli demands that it limit the size and range of its missile arsenal; and Iranian demands that it retain the right to enrich uranium and, more recently, for war reparations….
[I]t also raises the possibility that the war will end—or at least come to an uneasy truce—without Mr. Trump having accomplished many of the goals he laid out.
Tehran’s ‘Toll Booth’ System Is Now Controlling Hormuz Traffic
