Let me see if I understand this. A few days ago Trump starting attacking Iran without consulting Congress or the Arab nations. He and his advisers expected the ‘military incursion’ to last for about 7 to 10 days. They would destroy Iran’s military capability, kill the Iranian leader and instal a more amenable one (as happened in Venezuela), Iran would surrender and come to a deal with Trump who would then declare victory and bask in soaring approval ratings, especially from MAGA supporters.
Instead Iran has survived and the new leader is the hard-line son of the previous leader who Trump had killed. The Iranian people are starving, but the Iranian dictatorship has never cared about them. The leadership themselves have survived, as has some of their military. They’re doing a good job of disrupting world oil supplies, which the US government apparently hadn’t anticipated. The Arabian nations are being attacked, and oil prices are going through the roof.
Trump, who last week told European nations including us to butt out of his war, is now asking for European ships to help protect the Strait of Hormuz. Many MAGA supporters are not supporting this war but are noticing the increase in their gas prices. The winners so far are Israel, Russia and China. Israel is gaining because it is destroying Hezbollah. Putin is getting extra tens of millions of dollars in increased oil revenues to fund the war in Ukraine. China is gaining more influence worldwide. Would this be the state of play compared to two Sundays ago?