US President Donald Trump has told the American people that although his goals for the war against Iran are about to be achieved, he intends to keep military operations going for at least two more weeks and threatens to escalate the intensity of the strikes.
In his first live address to the nation since declaring war more than a month ago, which aired on full-time television Wednesday night, Trump tried to sell his audience on the merits of continuing a war he has repeatedly declared to be ending.
“We are on track to eliminate all American military targets very soon,” Trump said.
“We’re going to hit them hard in the next two to three weeks. We’re going to take them back to the stone age where they should have been,” he continued.
Only once in his 20-minute speech did Trump touch on the possibility that talks with the regime in Tehran could end the war.
That has led analysts – including Brett McGurk, a former US National Security Council adviser on the Middle East – to rule that Trump’s next steps are likely to involve escalation.
In his first public speech since the start of the US-Israel war against Iran, US President Donald Trump expressed his success in the conflict and said it will end in a few weeks. He also praised America’s allies in the Middle East.
“I thought we were going to hear a bit of an insult, that we’re going to end it in a couple of weeks,” McGurk told CNN after Trump finished speaking.
“Actually I felt something very different,” he said. “I think this fight will go on for a long time, that’s what I heard.”
Janice Stein, founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy in Toronto, told CBC News reporter Adrienne Arsenault that she was surprised by Trump’s speech.
“When you try to force your enemy to come to the table and do what Donald Trump says he’s an expert at, the art of the deal, you never clearly show them that the war is about to end. Because if you do that, why won’t they just wait for you?” Stein said.
Much of the president’s rhetoric has focused on what the US military has achieved in destroying Iranian targets – often delivered in the boastful style that defines Trump.
He described Iran’s navy as extinct, its air force in ruins, most of its leaders dead, its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps annihilated, its weapons factories blown to pieces.
US President Donald Trump said the war in the Middle East will end soon. However, Iran continued to shell targets across the region and Israel continued its strikes on Iran.
“In the history of wars, there has never been an enemy that has lost such great things in a few weeks,” he said.
What Trump did not explain: why the war should continue for at least two more weeks with greater force if Iran’s military targets have been clearly destroyed.
‘We will finish the job’
“Because of the steps we have taken, we are on the verge of eliminating the serious threat posed by Iran to America and the world,” he said. “We’re going to get the job done and we’re going to get it done as quickly as possible.”
But Trump appeared to be putting aside the pursuit of two jobs that have been floated as ways to end the job: controlling the Strait of Hormuz or seizing Iran’s uranium enrichment.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran has stockpiled 440 kilograms of highly enriched uranium, possibly enough to make 10 fully enriched nuclear weapons, at two sites bombed by the US last June.
Although Trump said Iran was close to producing nuclear weapons before he started a war, he said on Wednesday night that the sites had been hit so hard it would take months to reach what he called “nuclear dust”.
US President Donald Trump is discussing ordering ground troops into Iran. Catching any of the most likely targets can be a major challenge, experts say.
At the time, Trump appeared to be dismissive of any responsibility to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial traffic.
Before the war began, about 20 percent of crude oil and liquefied natural gas passed through the narrow waters at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.
Trump urges others to ‘seize’ the Strait of Hormuz
Iran launched strikes on tankers from US-allied nations, effectively blocking all but a handful of Tehran-sanctioned vessels, driving up world oil prices.
Gasoline prices around the world also rose, including in the United States, where the national average price at the pumps hit $4.06 US a liter on Wednesday, up more than 35 percent since the war began.
Trump said in his speech that the US does not need the crude oil that is often transported through the Strait of Hormuz, and told countries that do to “grab” and “appreciate” it.
“Go down the street and just take it,” he said. “Iran has been destroyed. The hard part is done, so it should be easy.”
Trump has gone back and forth several times on the importance of opening the traffic lane, including in the past 48 hours.
In a social media post Monday morning, Trump threatened to attack Iran’s desalination and water plants if the strait is not “open for Business” immediately.
On Tuesday afternoon at the White House, Trump told reporters that the US “will do nothing” to make the strait safe for shipping because his country does not need it.
Trump also appeared to engage in some historical revisionism by saying that he did not intend to bring about real regime change in Iran – the only Islamic government that has existed since 1979.
“Government change was not our goal,” he said. “But the regime change happened because all their first leaders died. They are all dead.”
This has been Trump’s line for a few days now: he insists that the new leaders in Tehran are different, even though the Islamic government is still in place.
US President Donald Trump says that the US seizure of one of the most important assets in Iran – Kharg Island – is possible “very easily,” but experts warn that the reality is more complicated. Andrew Chang breaks down why even a successful attack can lead to huge losses and uncertain profits. Images provided by Canadian Press, Adobe Stock, Reuters and Getty Images
“We’ve had a regime change,” Trump said at the White House on Tuesday. “Now we have a very different group of people. They are very logical.”
While Trump described Iran’s current leadership as “very irrational” and “very rational,” there has been no visible change in tone from Tehran, let alone a visible change in the regime’s treatment of Iranian citizens.
It’s a major shift in Trump’s message shortly after he ordered the first strikes on Tehran.
“The hour of your freedom is near,” he told Iranians in a video posted on social media on February 28. “When we are done, take your government. It will be yours to take.”
A variety of polls conducted in the US over the past month have consistently shown a majority of respondents opposing the war. Its impact on the cost of living does not benefit people.
Trump devoted part of his speech to urging Americans to “put this conflict in perspective” by listing how long the US spent in two world wars as well as Korea, Vietnam and Iraq, and comparing that to the Iran war timeline of 32 days so far.
“This is a real investment for your children and your grandchildren’s future,” he said.
What remains to be seen is whether that message will resonate with the American people, especially if the war escalates and the costs increase.
