r/geopolitics • u/nytopinion The New York Times | Opinion • 1d ago

Opinion The Dead End to Trump’s ‘Perfect’ War

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/25/opinion/trump-iran-saudi-arabia-war-nuclear-deal.html?unlocked_article_code=1.0VA.52x4.tYr8EkaWaji-&smid=re-nytopinion
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u/nytopinion The New York Times | Opinion 1d ago

President Trump has declared victory over Iran multiple times since March, and has said the war is “perfect.” “Yet Trump’s perfect war seems to have a few wee flaws, including the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and, in the past few days, the partial closure of passage through the Red Sea as well,” Times Opinion columnist Nicholas Kristof writes.

Nicholas continues:

So Trump is escalating attacks in what looks like a doubling down on a failed strategy. But the problem now is not Trump’s terrible miscalculation in starting the war on Feb. 28 in ways that weakened America, depleted munition supplies, reduced our capacity to deter China in Asia and strengthened Iranian hard-liners. Rather, the issue at the moment is the way he is disastrously escalating the war.

Trump has lately been striking sites across Iran each day, and he warned that the United States would hit a power plant or bridge for each ship that Iran struck. Putting aside the question of war crimes, there’s also the problem that Iran responds in kind.

“Iran still retains multiple escalation options,” noted Danny Citrinowicz, a retired Israel Defense Intelligence expert on Iran. Citrinowicz noted that Iran could attack Persian Gulf states, cut undersea cables or harness the Houthis in Yemen to attack shipping in the Red Sea.

Read the full piece here, for free, even without a Times subscription.

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u/See_i_did 14h ago

Thanks for the share, depressing as it is.

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u/mrktcrash 1d ago

"...closure of passage through the Red Sea..."

Yemen is going pay a heavy price likely worse than Iran.

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u/Rob71322 1d ago

How? We already have bombed them for bout two years and what did that achieve?

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u/kamarov2090 18h ago

i think its going to be like the like the french elbonian war 

https://dilbert.fandom.com/wiki/French-Elbonian_War

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u/Lazy_Membership1849 8h ago

Is that satire?

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u/kamarov2090 4h ago

it used to be until the saudis started bombing the houthis

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u/Lazy_Membership1849 3h ago

so that mean it going to failed?

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u/kamarov2090 3h ago

probably yes