As President of the United States, Donald Trump is automatically the Commander-in-Chief of all the armed forces of the US military. Any organisation is as good as its leadership, and unfortunately for the US military, a superb fighting force, the Commander-in-Chief appears to be more the Coward-in-Chief. The differences between the military capacity of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the US military are immense, and the ongoing conflict between the US and Iran ought to have been brought to a victorious close within weeks if not days of when the operation was launched by President Trump. Instead, the war is dragging on for months, with no apparent end in sight. As a consequence, the international economy is witnessing headwinds of increasing force.
The IRGC through Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei is putting forward terms that have been unchanged since the start of the conflict. They say they ought to be given “full sovereignty” over the Strait of Hormuz. Further, they should be freed of all sanctions and restrictions, and no further military action should be taken against them. Not just that, the IRGC seeks reparations for the damage inflicted by the conflict. A victorious army imposes sanctions on a defeated enemy. Has the IRGC won? No. Has the US lost? No. Rather than leave operations to his military commanders led by General Dan Caine, President Trump is managing matters, such as the reckless diversion of naval carrier groups from the vicinity of waters sought to be controlled by the PRC.
The unwillingness of Trump to use sufficient force to defang the clerical regime by severely degrading its military has caused a situation worldwide where the US is seen as losing to Iran. What such a conclusion leads to where US prestige is concerned is obvious. For all his huffing and puffing, Trump has held back from going after the IRGC with the ferocity sought by regional US allies such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Oman, not to mention Israel and Qatar. If the IRGC is given control over the Strait of Hormuz, the clerical regime in Iran could choke off oil supplies going by sea of the regional allies of the US. An unacceptable condition, as indeed are the others sought to be won not on the battlefield but through bargaining by the IRGC.
Even the visit of President Trump to Beijing is ill-timed. The PRC has made no secret of its preference for the clerical regime, underscoring the alliance between China and Iran. To the Chinese public, the mere fact that Trump has gone to Beijing rather than CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping coming to Washington shows to the Chinese public that the US is getting weaker, more diminished, on the international stage. It is farcical that Trump believed that Xi would pull his self-created chestnuts out of the fire rather than add fuel to the flames to further singe the US.
Each regional ally of the US has been attacked by the IRGC and the US has shown itself to be seemingly powerless to prevent such actions. Because of the economic consequences of the war to their own lives, more and more US citizens are veering in favour of stopping the conflict without shattering the IRGC. Should the US Congress acquire enough anti-war momentum, a veto-proof resolution would be passed forcing the US President to cease the conflict. That would be a victory for the IRGC and for Grand Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei. After such a shoddy retreat in the face of IRGC aggression, US allies would lose faith in the ability or the willingness of Washington to protect them. The US alliance system that has been in place since World War II ended, would collapse.
It is time for those close to Trump, whether family or friends, to give him some backbone and ensure he does what ought to have been done months ago, use the full panoply of US military power to finish off the IRGC as a military force. Such a situation would lead to a fresh popular uprising against the clerics, and unlike in 1979, replace the clerical dictatorship in Iran with democracy. Across the world, the manner in which the indecision, indeed cowardice, of President Trump is inflicting economic and other losses. The time for talk is over. The iron fist needs to be taken out of the Presidential glove quaking with trepidation.
