The TACO to beat all TACOs

I was hoping that the conflict in Iran would end with Iran’s nuclear stockpile removed or destroyed. Most optimistically I hoped the Iranian people would finally be free of their despotic regime that so recently killed 30,000 peaceful protesters. I hoped Iran would no longer have the capacity to threaten outside their borders and support terror networks throughout the Middle East.

I was alarmed when Trump threatened to blow up all the bridges and power stations in Iran. I’m not one of those saying that it would automatically be a war crime, as some may be dual use. But a blanket destruction of civilian infrastructure would be.

When Trump then threatened to end a civilisation, that didn’t just jump across the line, it went 1,000 kms past it. A nuclear power threatening to destroy a civilisation is 25th amendment territory.

Now you could argue that Trump’s deranged rhetoric would have been justified if it had scared Iran into some sort of major concession such as handing over the uranium. But instead he got basically worse than nothing. He agreed to use the Iranian 10 point peace plan as the basis for negotiations during a 14 day ceasefire. They are:

• Strait of Hormuz to be reopened “under the co-ordination of the armed forces of Iran”
• Establishment of a “secure transit protocol” in the Strait of Hormuz
• The war against “all components” of Iran’s so-called Axis of Resistance to end
• US forces to withdraw from “all bases and points of deployment within the region”
• Full payment of compensation to Iran 
• Lifting of all primary sanctions 
• Lifting of all secondary sanctions 
• Termination of all UN Security Council resolutions
• Termination of all IAEA resolutions on Iran’s nuclear programme 
• Release of all frozen Iranian assets and properties abroad

I am glad Trump did a mega TACO, as destroying Iran’s civilian infrastructure would just make the Iranian people more pro-regime.

But you can’t hide it is a humiliating backdown. Iran has lost much of its missile capability, which is good. But it can build more. But it has shown the US that it can close the Strait of Hormuz unless you are prepared to risk naval assets in defending ships there (like Reagan did).

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