As this is written VP Vance has just returned with two partners attempting to negotiate a peace deal, for Iran not to acquire nuclear weapons and to open the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump’s reasons for initiating the war, er, excursion, vary depending on the day and his mood. They include regime change, elimination of Iran’s nuclear capability, elimination of its conventional military power including missiles, destruction of its navy, and elimination of its threat to other Mid-east nations.

Trump and his tough talking Secretary of Defense believed that devastating air and missile attacks would quickly eliminate any chance of Iran fighting back, and result in it begging for peace, willing to accept whatever terms Trump demanded. After devastating attacks with destruction of buildings, death of the Ayatollah, and death of many civilians including innocent school children, Trump declared victory. It was over except for dictating the terms of surrender.

As usual, Trump was ignorant of history, especially Iran’s unexpected survival after having been pounded by Iraq during the long Iraqi-Iranian war. Iran had long ago learned how to survive during hardship. After heavy American bombing instead of collapsing after mass destruction of buildings and death of people, the regime continued uninterrupted with Ayatollah’s son, a harder line leader than his father, taking over.

Trump had never learned that bombing alone, even military victories alone, does not achieve broader strategic goals. Bombing tends to strengthen resistance. Iran still maintained its enriched uranium and its ability and desire to be a nuclear power. It is still able to inflict military pain, not only on its neighbors but to the U.S. as demonstrated by its downing jets and shelling installations that resulted in American dead and wounded. And it subsequently controls the Strait of Hormuz, lawfully declared international waters.

With the rising American unpopularity of the war, Iran’s demonstrated ability to continue to inflict pain, thousands of U.S. military personnel poised for possible ground invasion, and world-wide economic anxiety — including rising gas prices at home, all this was enough to motivate Trump to engage in peace talks to bring the war to conclusion.

This disastrous mess that Trump got us into — a costly war that failed to achieve major objectives, with no satisfactory end likely — makes ever more evident the wisdom of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) negotiated during the Obama Administration. This landmark multinational agreement was reached with Iran, the U.S., Russia, China, France, Germany, and the U.K. Its primary goal was to prevent Iran from developing its nuclear weapons in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. The deal included strict monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

During the life of the agreement, the IAEA affirmed that Iran was upholding its end of the agreement.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu always opposed the deal. Many Republicans were skeptical of the deal if not outright opposed; it was not deemed “tough enough.”

As the deal was formed under the Obama administration, with Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, and Assistant Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Chair John Kerry as chief U.S. negotiators, we could expect partisan reaction. And as could have been expected, this deal formed under the Obama Administration was vigorously opposed by Donald Trump who promised to end it when elected.

Pardon my cynicism, but how could we expect the mainstream media and its more conservative pundits to give credit to anything involving Obama and Clinton.

With his election, Trump unilaterally withdrew from the deal in 2017 against the advice of key advisors he had appointed. These advisors were surely not Democrats, but were indeed pragmatists.

It wasn’t enough for Trump just to break our word and nix the deal. After promising to keep us out of unnecessary foreign wars, he declared war, er., an “excursion” against Iran, bringing us to the present imbroglio and desire to end the war — with no peaceful end in sight.

To form the JOPCA it was not a simple matter for a few negotiators to sit at the table and hammer it out. No, the process took over 21 month of difficult meetings including State Department experts with knowledge and expertise on Middle Eastern history and customs, language experts of Persian and Arabic, nuclear scientists, and diplomats of all stripe from all countries involved.

So what does Trump do in an effort for peace talks? He sends his VP, his son-in law, and a real estate developer. VP Vance, with no prior experience in international negotiations, money-grubbing Jared Kushner with a history of extracting $2 billion from the Saudis and seeking more, and Steve Witkoff, a real estate expert in flipping luxury condos in Manhattan. This motley crew appropriately compared by some critics to The Three Stooges, expected to complete in some 21 hours a deal at least as good as what JOPCA took some 21 months to complete. And these Three Stooges expecting to negotiate with hardline, experienced tough Iranians fresh from ducking American bombs, and get significant concessions? And media nitwits cooperating by calling this effort “monumental.”

Even Trump, dullard that he is, was astute enough to protect himself from this Three Stooges operation that had chances of success of zero to none. So what does Trump do but use the U.S. Navy to block the blockade with his own blockade. You can’t make this stuff up.

Use of military force is hard power, sometimes necessary. But strategic objectives and successful foreign policy requires soft power, consisting of cooperating with allies, rendering assistance to foreign countries through agencies such as USAID, and competent diplomacy. Trump has no time for soft power that is necessary for the U.S. to exercise its privilege and responsibility for world leadership.

Real negotiations by competent, serious diplomats will be necessary for productive results that avoid the use of ground troops. These negotiations will be very, very difficult with U.S. as Iranian demands are directly in opposition to each other. But every effort needs to be made to avoid more deaths, including American military casualties. All this would not have happened if only Trump had heeded the advice of leaving the JOPCA intact.

Members of the armed forces take an oath to follow orders and, if necessary, give their lives for their country. Their fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, and children will not be so willing to condone those lives lost for a war of choice that was unnecessary and even counterproductive.

— John Waelti of Monroe, a retired professor of economics, can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears monthly in the Monroe Times.