Opinion: Iran war: Trump must change course now to avoid another Vietnam
Like a slow-motion car crash, the US-Israeli attacks on Iran are morphing into a third Gulf war.
Since signing a ceasefire deal that clearly recognised Iran’s sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz and forced Israel to halt military operations in Lebanon, US President Donald Trump has slithered and backtracked his way out of both commitments, resuming a full-scale and increasingly bloody war.
Both Trump and the man primarily responsible for pushing him into this war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, were poorly received at home for the ceasefire deal: Trump because he actually signed it, and Netanyahu because he was cut out of the process, amid a sense that Israel’s ally and armourer had imposed a premature peace.
Neither leader could justify a deal that was seen as a major capitulation. Both face imminent elections, and they regard the strong-arm tactics with Tehran as a matter of personal political survival.
Both are stuck in a doom loop of their own making. As soon as their many claims to have “smashed, obliterated and crushed” Iran were shown to be bogus, the only option was to go back and start the whole operation all over again.
: Opinion: Trump must change course in Iran now to avoid another Vietnam
US President Donald Trump is pictured in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on 21 July 2026 (Saul Loeb/AFP)