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GWYNNE DYER: What's Trump's 'threshold of pain' in Iran?

Even though he could simply call it a win and go home, Trump instead seems determined to escalate US-Iran war

It would be so easy for Donald Trump to escape from the trap he has built for himself in the Persian Gulf. Just declare a victory and leave.

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So what if the Iranians also declare victory (with a lot more accuracy)? The ‘nuclear weapons’ that gave Trump (and Israeli leader Binyamin Netanyahu) a pretext for attacking Iran never really existed. This would be as close to cost-free for the United States as a lost war ever gets: only a dozen American dead.

The only audience that really matters for Trump is the MAGA supporters back home, and they would be so glad to see him drop this nonsense that they wouldn’t say a word against him. The oil price would drop, and Republicans might even manage to hold onto both Houses of Congress in the November mid-term elections.

But Trump just can’t accept defeat, either in politics or in war. That’s why he’s still re-litigating the presidential........

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