Trump wants a 'Mission Accomplished' in Iran

Exactly six months ago, President Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. Trump, only the second US President to be elected for non-consecutive terms, made multiple promises in the run up to his presidency. He promised to end two raging conflicts - the Russia-Ukraine War and Israel's war against Iranian proxies. Six months later, both conflict theatres are, in fact, expanding. Both Russia and Ukraine are striking deeper into each other's territories.advertisementOn Friday, June 13, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a wave of air attacks to destroy Iran's ability to acquire nuclear weapons, kill its nuclear scientists and generals and effect regime change from the air. Iran has retaliated by firing hypersonic missiles targeting Israeli civilians.Six months after Trump's swearing in, the biggest question in the world today is not whether Trump can end conflicts. It is whether he will join one.
Significant US forces are moving into place for what seems like an imminent US attack on Iran. The USS Enterprise carrier strike group (CSG) is steaming in to the Indian Ocean to join the USS Carl Vinson CSG. The USS Gerald Ford CSG is headed towards the Mediterranean Sea. Three US CSGs are a sign of impending action. The eight permanent US bases in West Asia are on high alert over possible Iranian retaliation, their numbers bolstered by 20 US flight-refuelling tankers towing in large numbers of F-16s, F-15s and F-35s.advertisementA quarter of the US's B-2 'Spirit' stealth bomber fleet is already parked in the Indian Ocean island airbase of Diego Garcia, over 4,000 km south of Iran, waiting for the order to strike at Iran's Fordow nuclear enrichment site buried 90 metres underground. The B-2s are one of only three US platforms that can carry the 13-ton GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators, which can penetrate and destroy deeply-entrenched targets like Fordow.WHAT TRUMP WANTSAt the end of his first term in 2021, Trump prided himself on being the only US President not to start a war. Four years later, the showman President is under enormous pressure to deliver a big win. Something that could secure his place in history, define his legacy, perhaps even result in a Nobel Peace Prize.It's not for want of trying though. In the last six months, Trump has tried every trick from his book to get a peace deal. The book in question is his 1987 bestseller 'Art of the Deal', which underlines the criticality of winning - 'do the dirty work to win'.Trump has arm-twisted world leaders like President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Oval Office to get him to agree to a peace deal. When neither Russia nor Ukraine showed any intent to end the war, he turned towards other battlefields. He vaulted into the Indian subcontinent, taking credit for mediating a ceasefire between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.advertisementOn May 10, India launched a supersonic missile barrage shattering Pakistani airbases, pausing operations only after Pakistan dialled in for a ceasefire. Trump says it was because he intervened, an assertion he has repeated despite a June 18 phone call from Prime Minister Modi and an Ministry of External Affairs readout listing facts to the contrary.Later that day, an unmoved Trump feted Pakistan's de facto military ruler, Field Marshal Asim Munir, at a White House luncheon. The menu was not known, but it is likely what every US President has wanted of Islamabad's mercenary army - the use of its airspace and air bases in return for advanced US weapons (which could be used against arch-enemy India) and a short-term alliance against a neighbour, in this case, Iran.The analyst Brahma Chellaney believes Trump might even have planned to ambush Prime Minister Narendra Modi by setting up a photo-op with Munir in Washington. PM Modi avoided this trap when he skipped Trump's June 18 invitation to visit DC.advertisementMISSION ACCOMPLISHEDMost US Presidents have proactively sought global conflicts. One of Trump's predecessors, George W Bush, launched what he thought was a quick-win war with Iraq. His 2003 invasion of Iraq was premised on flawed intelligence that Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs). Bush posed before a 'Mission Accomplished' banner on a US aircraft carrier when Saddam's creaky regime collapsed.But the operation was a catastrophe. It pulled the US into an insurgency quagmire lasting close to two decades, the deaths of over 4,400 US servicemen, the loss of over USD 2 trillion in costs and fatalities of over half a million Iraqis. With arch-enemy Saddam eliminated, a resurgent Iran bounced back, creating a Shia axis of influence stretching from the Mediterranean to the Arabian Sea.Successive US Presidents since Bush have tried to firewall Iran's ambitions and failed. In 2025, Trump hopes to cut the Iranian Gordian knot with quick in-and-out aerial strikes that could destroy Iran's nuclear capability.The Iranian regime has been extremely resilient, enduring global sanctions under eight successive US Presidents over four decades. In the unlikely event of a regime collapse, Trump would have achieved an even bigger victory.advertisementBoth options will not taint the Trump boast of not starting a war. The Israel-Iran war, Trump can argue, began on then-US President Joe Biden's watch. Another blame Trump could pin on his predecessor as the Donald parades before a 'Mission Accomplished' banner.(Sandeep Unnithan is an author and senior journalist. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Chakra Newz, a digital media platform)(Views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author)Tune InMust Watch

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