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Welcome to The Logoff: When will Donald Trump’s struggle with Iran finish?
What’s occurring? The US and Israel have now spent 11 days hanging targets in Iran, killing the nation’s supreme chief and destroying Iranian missile launchers and naval property. However it’s not clear the place they go from right here, and also you’ll get completely different solutions relying on who you ask.
Trump, on Monday: “I feel the struggle could be very full, just about.”
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt, at present: “When [Trump] determines the army aims have been met…and that Iran is able of full and unconditional give up.”
US particular envoy to the Center East Steve Witkoff, additionally at present: “I don’t know.”
What are the choices, actually? As my colleague Zack Beauchamp has reported, “unconditional give up” — and the extra US-friendly management Trump has stated he desires — isn’t seemingly underneath present situations. As a substitute, the most probably outcomes are a negotiated settlement, or Trump merely deciding to assert victory and go house.
Why does this matter? This isn’t a brand new drawback for the Trump administration, which has been unable to elucidate why it took the US to struggle. However it’s solely going to get extra acute because the struggle drags on and gasoline — adopted by nearly the whole lot else — will get costlier. US casualties are additionally mounting: Eight service members have died, and about 140 have been wounded, in keeping with the Pentagon.
Within the meantime, the US and Israel are bombarding Tehran, a metropolis of greater than 9 million individuals. Israeli strikes on oil services over the weekend have brought on harmful acid rain to fall from the skies, and strikes have additionally brought on widespread energy outages. On Tuesday, Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth introduced “our most intense day of strikes inside Iran.”
“In the event that they maintain hitting Tehran like this for an additional 10 days,” one resident instructed the New York Occasions, “nothing will stay of Tehran.”
And with that, it’s time to log out…
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