A feckless president makes a reckless choice as U.S. bombs Iran | Editorial

It follows that when a reckless president gets elected, expect reckless decisions.

When a president appoints an unqualified cabinet of sycophants, don’t expect thoughtful deliberations.

When a president doesn’t trust the intelligence community, he won’t listen to his director of national intelligence.

When a president doesn’t believe in checks and balances, he won’t consult Congress.

When a president is an inveterate liar, don’t expect the truth.

That explains how Donald Trump chose to bomb Iran, days after saying he would take two weeks to let diplomacy try to resolve the situation.

Casting aside decades of statecraft and a promise to end wars not start them, Trump sent B-2 stealth bombers and nuclear submarines to attack three nuclear facilities in Iran — including one site buried inside a mountain.

The B-2 bombers dropped a dozen 30,000-pound bunker busters on the underground Fordo site, while Navy submarines fired 30 cruise missiles at two other sites. The bombs fell around 2:30 a.m. local time.

No one knows what comes next — not even Trump.

He declared the strikes on Iran a “spectacular military success.” But the initial U.S. military assessment said Fordo was damaged but not destroyed.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, warned that “Iran reserves all options to defend its sovereignty, interest, and people.” He accused the United States of violating international law and the United Nations charter and added that bombing Iran “will have everlasting consequences.”

Indeed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is preparing for a possibly long war.

Netanyahu led Trump into the conflict after Israel launched attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities just over a week ago.

The Israeli leader, who faces corruption charges at home and is accused of committing war crimes in Gaza, apparently ran out of targets there so he went ahead with his long-held desire to attack Iran, claiming it was close to obtaining a nuclear bomb.

Netanyahu has been making the same claim for almost 20 years. In 1996, he said “time is running out.” In 2012, he stood before the U.N. holding a cartoon-like drawing of a round bomb and a lit fuse, and urged the international community to stop Iran.

But recent U.S. intelligence assessments concluded Iran was not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon and was up to three years away from being able to produce and deliver one.

In March, Trump’s director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, testified before Congress that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon and that the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had not authorized the nuclear weapons program.

When asked about Gabbard’s testimony, Trump said, “I don’t care what she said, I think they were very close to having one.”

After Trump’s rebuke, Gabbard changed her tune and claimed Iran could produce nuclear weapons “within weeks.”

We’ve been here before.

Warmongering, bad intelligence, lies, and hubris led then-President George W. Bush to send U.S. forces to invade Iraq in March 2003, claiming Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

Months later, Bush declared “Mission Accomplished.”

Yet, no WMDs were ever found and the war dragged on for another eight years.

More than 4,700 U.S. and allied troops died for a lie. More than 100,000 Iraqi civilians were killed. U.S. war crimes were committed. American taxpayers wasted at least $3 trillion.

The 20-year war in Afghanistan was a separate fiasco. As was the roughly quarter century of involvement in Vietnam. Both cost lots of blood and treasure.

Trump came into power vowing to end America’s forever wars. Instead, he may have just started one.

Meanwhile, Trump has essentially abandoned Ukraine and our European allies, who are left to defend against Russia’s unprovoked invasion and war crimes.

The U.S. has also largely abandoned peace efforts in Gaza, leaving hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to starve, including many women and children.

Bombing Iran leaves the U.S. with little moral authority if China decides to invade Taiwan.

Meanwhile, the fawning Republicans in Congress largely fell in line behind Trump. So is Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman. Trump ignored Democratic leaders in Congress before unilaterally deciding to bomb Iran.

Trump also left some in the MAGA camp — including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the unserious performance pol from Georgia; and ousted Fox News propagandist, turned Putin apologist Tucker Carlson — wondering what happened to America First?

In just six months, Trump has made a mess of the country and the world.

Walking away from Iran will not be simple.

In 2002, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell warned Bush against invading Iraq, claiming it could destabilize the Middle East, roil oil markets, and divert time, attention, military resources, and precious tax dollars away from more pressing issues

Powell issued what became known as the Pottery Barn rule: “You break it, you’re going to own it.”

Trump owns what he breaks in Iran, but everyone else will pay the price.