Two weeks into a renewed bombing campaign against Iran, with US forces taking casualties and allies wary of the conflict escalating further, President Donald Trump insists that Iran is “desperate” to find an end to wave after wave of US attacks.
US Intel Assessment
However, both the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency have recently assessed that the kind of bombing the US is currently carrying out is unlikely to shift the Iranian negotiating position, according to two US officials familiar with the assessments.
The key mediator between the two sides — Qatar — threatened to walk away from the table after Iran struck a Qatari tanker earlier this month, in what would amount to a devastating and possibly irreplaceable loss for diplomatic efforts, according to a current and a former US official.
Trump’s Options
Trump could escalate by putting American boots on the ground, a threat he’s made repeatedly as he’s talked about occupying Kharg Island or removing Iran’s highly enriched uranium. That would further break a key promise he made to his supporters: “I will not send you to fight and die in stupid foreign wars that never end,” he said during a 2024 campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
Alternatively, Trump could accept a dangerous status quo: endless rounds of strikes and counterstrikes with Iran that are likely to cost further American lives and leave the Strait of Hormuz in a state of constant peril that could resemble the “forever wars” he has criticized.
Original reporting: KRDO (Colorado Springs metro) — read the source article.
