Trump’s obsession with ‘Making America Great Again’ could spark war with Iran: Irish writer

US President Donald Trump’s obsession with “Making America Great Again” combined with his demonization of certain countries could lead to war between the United States and Iran in a year or two, according to award-winning Irish writer and journalist Patrick Cockburn.

Cockburn, who specializes in analysis of Iraq, Syria and US wars in the Middle East, made these remarks an article published by The Independent on Friday.

Cockburn wrote that former US President Barack Obama deserves credit for escaping being sucked into “a broader conflict against Iran,” justifiably suspecting US allies in the Middle East like Saudi Arabia and (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council states were “eager to see the US fight their battles for them.”

But Trump, who unlike Obama does not read books and does not have a sense of history, is not aware of the pitfalls the US needs to avoid a war with Iran, he noted.  

He wrote that the Trump administration “projects a macho self-image devoted to ‘Making America Great Again’ and this, combined with demonization of its enemies, will hinder compromise and tactical retreats.”

“Western intervention in the region has usually come to grief because of arrogant exaggeration of its own strength and an underestimation of the capabilities of their enemies,” Cockburn noted.

“These failings unite with a crippling ignorance of the part of foreign powers about the complexity and dangers of the political and military terrain in which they were operating,” he wrote.

“This was true of Churchill who wrongly assessed likely Turkish military resistance in 1915. Lloyd George, one of the most astute of British prime ministers, made the same mistake in 1922 when his government destroyed itself by threatening to go to war with Turkey. Anthony Eden lost office after the Suez Crisis in 1956 when he failed to overthrow Nasser in Egypt. Tony Blair’s reputation was forever blasted for leading Britain into war in Iraq in 2003,” the analyst pointed out.  

“The Trump administration is seen by so many commentators as so uniquely awful in its contempt for the truth, legality and democracy, that they underestimate how much it has in common with that of George W. Bush,” Cockburn wrote. 

Since his inauguration on January 20, President Trump has adopted a hostile policy towards Iran.

He has repeatedly vowed to cancel the nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, including the US, and his administration has imposed new sanctions on multiple Iranian individuals and entities.

Senior Trump administration officials told Reuters that sanctions imposed against Iran were only the "initial steps in response to Iranian provocative behavior."

The new sanctions were imposed on February 3, a day after President Trump said "nothing is off the table" in terms of a response to Iran's ballistic missile tests, which are part of Iran’s missile defense program.

Meanwhile, according to a report, Trump was planning to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, but the US State and Defense Departments cautioned him against it.

Trump did not sign executive orders on the issue after US national security agencies warned the president about the consequences of such a move, US administration officials familiar with the matter told CNN. The report was published on Thursday. 

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