(Dobbs) “Trump Says War Over, Vows to Keep Fighting.”Actually finishing the job? I’m not sure Trump knows how.
These quotes from Donald Trump floored me: 1. “You know, you never want to say too early you won. We won. The first hour, it was over.” 2. “We don’t want to leave early, do we? We’ve got to finish the job.” What floored me was, he said both things Wednesday. Pod Save America summed it up: “Trump Says War Over, Vows to Keep Fighting.” This cartoon from the Las Vegas-Journal, published in The Washington Post, captures the spirit of his contradictions. NBC News yesterday asked the White House press secretary if there might be something, um, inconsistent about the two quotes? Of course the mechanically defensive Karoline Leavitt had an answer, which she posted on X: “The left-wing media is lying and pushing a fake narrative that there has been ‘mixed messaging.’” Mixed messaging? As ships burn in the Persian Gulf and oil prices go through the roof and the stock market plummets, Iran’s new supreme leader vowed Thursday to keep the critical Strait of Hormuz closed: “The popular demand is to continue our effective defense,” he said in a statement, “and make the enemy regret it. The leverage of blocking the Strait of Hormuz must continue to be used.” But “the first hour, it was over?” With yesterday’s deaths of six airmen over Iraq in an aircraft supporting the war effort, we lost more Americans, pushing the military death toll so far up to 13. But “we won?” The president of the United States has made an extraordinary and incredibly damaging decision to lift sanctions on Russia, which has been helping Iran. His treasury secretary said in a social media post, “To increase the global reach of existing supply, Treasury is providing a temporary authorization to permit countries to purchase Russian oil currently stranded at sea.” “Temporary” means a month, which Secretary Bessent said “will not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government.” True, if you don’t consider the estimated $150 million a day in added Russian revenue “significant.” That comes to about four-and-a-half billion dollars in this coming month that we’re putting in Vladimir Putin’s coffers. German chancellor Friedrich Merz said yesterday in Norway, “There is currently a price problem, but not a supply problem. And in that regard, I would like to know what additional motives led the U.S. government to make this decision.” That has been a question for a long time now: what drives Donald Trump to keep deferring to Vladimir Putin? The decision on sanctions is a gift to the Russian president as he lays waste to Ukraine. And it can only encourage him to keep helping Iran find American targets. If anyone still has any doubt that somehow Trump is in servitude to Putin, this should erase it. But “you never want to say too early you won?” What Trump and his team of supercilious warriors don’t understand because they haven’t put many boots on the ground is, in the Middle East, as in some other parts of the world, time is perceived differently than it is here at home. We are a quick fix society. They will sit and wait. We get distracted and move on to the next crisis. They have patience we can’t even imagine, the patience of societies that have been around for thousands of years, not just hundreds. What they also don’t understand is that in certain societies, the capacity for hardship is higher than it is here at home. At a point where we might cry uncle, they will still take a beating. This is truest in societies where people have suffered, not prospered. And finally what they don’t understand is, when the people of a nation have been political or social or religious rivals but find themselves all ducking the same bombs, they sometimes band together in opposition to whomever is attacking them. We don’t know whether there will be the “uprising” President Trump has called for, but if there’s not, then a byproduct of this war will be even more virulently anti-American Iranians. So, “we’ve got to finish the job?” It’s not finished yet. Another report yesterday suggests it won’t be finished for a long time. The Wall Street Journal says Defense Secretary Hegseth has just deployed an “element of an amphibious ready group and attached Marine expeditionary unit, typically consisting of several warships and 5,000 Marines and sailors.” They’ve been near Taiwan. Now they’ll sail to the Persian Gulf. They won’t be in the war zone tomorrow. And President Trump announced last night that the U.S. is bombing Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil terminal situated right in the Strait of Hormuz. Hegseth arrogantly asserted, “Don’t need to worry about it.” Where have we heard that before? It’s an escalation of the war, not a conclusion. Share Knowing how Donald Trump’s every thought is guided by his ego or his bank balance, people are saying that no matter how much we haven’t yet achieved in this war, he might just declare victory and bring everyone home. Famous for his fickle fakery, he might. But actually finishing the job? I’m not sure he knows how. Leave a comment © 2026 Greg Dobbs |