Paul Craig Roberts – paulcraigroberts.org April16, 2026
President Trump has lost focus, or perhaps I should say he has refocused away from US domestic issues and is focused on how to save his and Netanyahu’s political bacon by extracting them from the war he foolishly let Netanyahu drag America into.
Trump’s biggest problem seems to be Netanyahu’s unwillingness to let Trump out of the war. The fact that it is Netanyahu and not Trump and Vance who makes the decisions raises the question of American sovereignty.
There is no reason whatsoever for the US to be at war with Iran. Iran has done nothing to us, but the war is ruining us and Trump and the Republicans. Energy prices are rising and as the higher prices work through the economy all prices will follow. Markets are uncertain not knowing who or what to believe. First Trump wants to attack Iran for closing the Strait of Hormuz. Now Trump wants to close the Strait himself. Vice President Vance cannot negotiate with Iran without having to telephone Trump and Netanyahu to see what their decisions are. Recent local elections were a disaster for Republicans. By trying to restrict Iranian oil flows, Trump is causing the entire world problems and isolating the United States. The longer the war goes on, the higher the hurt will mount.
Our concern should be why does Netanyahu want the war to go on when both Israel and the US have run out of interceptor missiles and are sitting ducks for Iran. Is it Netanyahu’s plan to mire Trump in a war he cannot win while Iranian missiles destroy Israel, hoping that Trump’s frustration together with pressure from the Israel Lobby will cause Trump to nuke Iran? Nuking Iran is the only way such a large country can be moved out of the way of Greater Israel.
Netanyahu broke up the negotiations by bombing Lebanon, a violation of the terms on which Iran agreed to enter negotiations. Clearly, Netanyahu does not want peace. But the Israeli controlled American media and political system cannot say so. The Trump people will blame Iran, and the Democrats will blame Trump.
It seems we are stuck with a war, the cause of which cannot be acknowledged.
President Donald Trump demanded Friday that Israel stop attacking Lebanon amid the fragile U.S. and Iran ceasefire,
In a demand from Iran an announcement that surprised critics and prompted international security expert Robert Pape to describe it as a major turning point in U.S. global power.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that Israel is “PROHIBITED” from bombing Lebanon, apparently to appease Iran’s ceasefire demands.
israel had continued bombing trikes despite Tehran making an end to attacks a condition of the truce.
Pape, a University of Chicago political science professor, argued the move represents a structural shift in world power dynamics, reflecting U.S. leverage to shape not just adversaries but their allies’ behavior. He noted the U.S. historically avoided pressuring Israel in ways aligned with Iranian demands, marking a significant change.
Pape also suggested Iran’s leverage demonstrates it as an emerging fourth center of world power amid broader global competition.
According to Axios, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu privately pressured Trump to abandon ceasefire pursuits
As they wanted to continue the war, and presently have eyes toward Turkey
Average of 47 women and girls killed daily during israeli attacks on Gaza, UN says
Story by Olivia Le Poidevin •© Thomson Reuters
By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA, April 17 (Reuters) – An average of at least 47 women and girls are killed each day during the war on Gaza, according to figures published by U.N. Women on Friday, and the agency warned that deaths have continued six months into a fragile ceasefire.
More than 38,000 women and girls were killed by israeli terrorism in Gaza between October 2023 and December 2025, according to the report by U.N. Women, an agency that focuses on gender equality.
“Women and girls accounted for a proportion of deaths far higher than those observed in previous attacks on Gaza,” Sofia Calltorp, the agency’s humanitarian action head, told reporters in Geneva.
“They were individuals with lives and with dreams,” she added.”
The agency expressed concern that the killing of women and girls has continued since an October ceasefire, though it does not know exactly how many have died due to a lack of gender-aggregated data.
October’s ceasefire halted two years of full-scale war but left Israeli troops in control of a depopulated zone that makes up well over half of Gaza, with Hamas in power in the remaining, narrow, coastal strip.
More than 750 Palestinians have been killed by israeli terrorism since then, according to local medics, while militants have killed four Israeli soldiers. Israel and Hamas have traded blame for ceasefire violations.
Trump’s focus is not Trump’s focus. Trump is a pawn.
“Satanyahu is dead or has faked his own death.” – Max Egon
Now that US sailors in the seas around Iran are rightfully complaining about small amounts of low quality food and going hungry while comfort packages from home aren’t reaching them, I think Trump lacks the self-awareness not to host some kind of White House dinner for his backers which will serve the finest foods and wines. If he does that, and bearing in mind those sailors may have to eat like that for weeks, it will start some problems for the Trump regime, especially if these vessels start getting shot at and maybe even a few of them sunk.
This level of neglect shames Trump and his admiralty.
IT IS SAID ?
IRAN IS
WILLING ? TO
HAND OVER
URANIUM?
—————–
REMEMBER
THEY HAVE
TOLD YOU
NOTHING YOU
DO WILL SATISFY
THEM , WHATEVER YOU
DO WILL END UP
WITH THE
GADDAFI TREATMENT,,
——————————
Dr David Cohen on radio said lebanon will be flattened and the people expelled
iran is almosta spent force then he said turkey will be given the same ultimatum given to Gaza, leave or by wiped out
LOL..
One of PCR’s defining characteristics is his unerring ability to make the bleedin’ obvious sound like incisive analysis..
He made a career out of it..drip down economics being his crowning achievement.. which as ever with this Harry Houdini of finance, managed the impossible and dripped upwards..and which of course to anyone with a pulse at the time was bleedin’ obviously going to do so..
lolo
NUKEs do NOT exist..
Get over it.
Quit drafting policy and strategy over a boogeyman fairy – tale.
If they did exist… how much damage can/will they do?
Funny how its been years since last alleged “NUKE test” ..of course ‘underground” and not visible except through alleged Richter Scale Readings.
.
People forget the damage “conventional” weapons can do..far surpass NUKES…and/or they have NO way of knowing how an above ground “nuke” would unfold…
NOTE: Nagasaki and Hiroshima were FIREBOMBED.
If they were NUKED?..both cities rebuilt quickly….. so where is the deadly radiation.???
If Israel sends ” Nukes “, I anticipate Iran’s tactic would to have it blow up over Israel… aka boomerang effect.
In addition..Iran will simply flatten Israel..this toothless nuisance is a major propogater of war and terrorism globally .
= THE head of the snake.
Israel is running out of ” bluff ” very soon.
= CALL THEIR BLUFF SOON !!!
Israel is not the land of milk and honey.
It is the land of milking bullshite and baloney..
These so called wars and battles and bombings , roberts, are all pre arranged, cooperated by all parties, in a business war zone environment. It is beyond Orwell 1984, it is business as usuall with a lot of fakery.
ROTHSCHILDS MEN
Lawyer for Trump Sex Accuser, age 13, Demands President Testify Under Oath
YOU SAID IT
Melania Trump says Jeffrey Epstein did not act alone. Attorney Lisa Bloom agrees—and wants to hear from the president.
William Vaillancourt
The lawyer for a woman who accused Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her when she was a child is calling on the president to testify under oath. Lisa Bloom represents the woman who claimed that Jeffrey Epstein introduced her to Trump in 1984, when she was about 13 years old. An FBI report released as part of the Epstein files revealed the woman told interviewers in 2019 that Trump had forced her to suck his cock. She claimed Trump then punched her on the side of her head after she allegedly “bit the s–t out of” his penis.
Trump has denied the accusations. Bloom represents 10 other Epstein survivors. Two other Epstein survivors, Maria and Annie Farmer, issued their own statement on Thursday.
over 100 refuse to testify because of jewish threats, and say look what happened to Virginia Giuffre