Trump’s half-baked attacks against Iran won’t work

After less than five weeks, President Trump might just pick up his mitt and go home.

Facing falling polling numbers, rising gas prices and with few allies, Trump is now signaling he is ready to quit the Iran conflict unilaterally. Unlike the Vietnam War, where simply walking away would have been a good idea at any time, an incomplete here has the potential to be far worse than biting the bullet and finishing the job. 

One thing is clear about Team Trump: It learned some of the lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan. It didn’t learn all the lessons, though — or even the most important ones.

What the Bush administration got right about Iraq and Afghanistan was the public relations campaign. Whatever you think of the veracity of that effort — or, more accurately, the lack of veracity — Team Bush assembled a strong national and political consensus to act. That consensus managed to sustain operations for several years.

Incomprehensibly, Team Trump has done virtually nothing to build public support to act against Iran. And it would have been easy. Americans are very much opposed to the radical Iranian regime, and polling has shown they consider its nuclear weapons program a top foreign policy concern. But Trump just did what he has been doing all throughout his second term — he just acts and assumes the American people will support him.

Given that the Iranians may have tried to assassinate Trump, their continued nuclear program, material support for violent terrorists, abuse and persecution of their own people (particularly women) and support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, there is a reason for practically everyone on the American political spectrum to support more aggressive action against Iran. But Trump never made that case. His national address last night came six weeks too late. 

This failure to........

© The Hill