{"id":329300,"date":"2026-07-26T07:08:01","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T07:08:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=329300"},"modified":"2026-07-28T06:39:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T06:39:35","slug":"iran-war-trump-must-change-course-now-to-avoid-another-vietnam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=329300","title":{"rendered":"Iran war: Trump must change course now to avoid another Vietnam"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Hearst \u2013 Middle East Eye July 21, 2026<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Like a slow-motion car crash, the US<\/a>–Israeli<\/a> attacks on Iran<\/a> are morphing into a third Gulf war.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Since signing a ceasefire deal<\/a> that clearly recognised Iran\u2019s sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz and forced Israel to halt military operations in Lebanon<\/a>, US President Donald Trump has slithered and backtracked his way out of both commitments, resuming a full-scale and increasingly bloody war.<\/p>\n

Both Trump and the man primarily responsible for pushing him into this war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, were poorly received at home for the ceasefire deal: Trump because he actually signed it, and Netanyahu because he was cut out of the process, amid a sense that Israel\u2019s ally and armourer had imposed a premature peace.<\/p>\n

Neither leader could justify a deal that was seen as a major capitulation<\/a>. Both face imminent elections, and they regard the strong-arm tactics with Tehran as a matter of personal political survival.<\/p>\n

Both are stuck in a doom loop of their own making. As soon as their many claims<\/a> to have \u201csmashed, obliterated and crushed\u201d Iran were shown to be bogus, the only option was to go back and start the whole operation all over again.<\/p>\n

This happened repeatedly in Gaza with Hamas, and in Lebanon with Hezbollah. The only way to counter the obvious reality – that each movement<\/a> could survive repeated assassinations<\/a> of their leaders – was to go back to war.<\/p>\n

Iran never saw the deal negotiated by Pakistan<\/a> and Qatar<\/a> as anything other than a chance for the US to restock and rearm. It clearly said that if it was attacked again, it would make US troops stationed in the region pay. And it has.<\/p>\n

Nearly 100 US troops <\/a>have been injured in the last two weeks, while four\u00a0were killed<\/a> in attacks on American bases in Iraq<\/a> and Jordan<\/a>, and multiple Black Hawk helicopters were damaged<\/a> at a Jordanian airfield. The Pentagon clearly cannot provide protection to 50,000 troops<\/a> stationed in around 20 bases<\/a> across the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Levers of coercion\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Iran is now doing to Trump what the US president thought he could do to Tehran, which was to strong-arm it into surrendering its nuclear enrichment programme and its regional network of allies.\u00a0Iran is using strikes on shipping<\/a> and attacks against its Gulf neighbours – even mediators like Qatar – as levers to coerce Trump into a weaker position at the negotiating table.<\/p>\n

Trump and Netanyahu have relished their tactic of mixing bombing with talking, repeatedly targeting negotiating teams<\/a> themselves.<\/p>\n

In June 2025, Israel attacked Iran as negotiators were about to meet in Oman<\/a>, and the US joined in a week later. A few months on, in September, Israel bombed a meeting<\/a> in Doha of the political leadership of Hamas, which had convened to discuss a US peace proposal.<\/p>\n

Trump prided himself on maintaining the illusion of talks with Iran when it was about to be struck: \u201cIsrael attacked first. That attack was very, very powerful. I was very much in charge of that,\u201d he told reporters<\/a> late last year.<\/p>\n

Now, the same tactic is being used against him.\u00a0Iran is deliberately widening the battlefield to include Jordan, Saudi Arabia<\/a> and Yemen<\/a>, countries that got off relatively lightly in the first month of the US war on Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that further attacks would lead Iran to widen the scope<\/a> of the war, with its Houthi allies<\/a> in Yemen on standby to potentially close the mouth of the Red Sea.<\/p>\n

Accordingly, hostilities have reopened between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia<\/a>. This will inevitably bring into contention another chokepoint in global maritime shipping: the Bab el-Mandab Strait at the mouth of the Red Sea.<\/p>\n

The Houthis blamed Riyadh for a recent attack on the Sanaa airport<\/a>, and fired missiles towards Saudi Arabia, threatening a successful four-year ceasefire<\/a>. On Monday, the Houthis announced<\/a> the imposition of a \u201cmaritime embargo\u201d on Saudi ports.<\/p>\n

It is already working.\u00a0Three oil tankers with Saudi crude made U-turns in the Red Sea on Tuesday, heading\u00a0 back towards the Suez Canal, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n

Lever by lever, Iran is raising the global costs of Trump\u2019s war. US petrol prices have soared back above $4 a gallon<\/a>. The Strait of Hormuz is closed, and the Red Sea will be too, soon, if this round of fighting continues. US Defence Secretary Peter Hegseth has already had to admit that the war has cost $37.5bn , and that is only the Pentagon’s costs. You could easily double that figure if you count for the damage done to Iran and the Gulf assets.<\/p>\n

Turning point<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It looks like Groundhog Day for Trump. Last week, he was busy dusting off the files for the potential use of US troops in ground operations in Iran.<\/p>\n

He returned to his Situation Room to discuss the potential seizure of Kharg Island, Iran\u2019s main oil terminal, as well as the possibility of bombing a tunnel complex at Pickaxe Mountain and targeting energy sites, The Wall Street Journal<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

But in the five months since he and Netanyahu started this war, the ground at home has been shifting underneath his feet. American public opinion has been turning against<\/a> this war – and against Israel<\/a>, too.<\/p>\n

Does it matter? Yes, it does. The latest polls show that this war is historically unpopular in the US, with 77 percent of independents believing the war “was not worth it” and 63 percent of independents leaning towards the Republicans of the same mind.<\/p>\n

It was in this arena, not the frontlines of Southeast Asia, that former US President Lyndon B Johnson lost the Vietnam War. It took seven long years and another president to eventually pull out of Saigon, but historians now agree the turning point<\/a> was February 1968.<\/p>\n

CBS had sent its most trusted anchor, Walter Cronkite, to Vietnam after the Tet Offensive. After watching Cronkite pronounce the death knell<\/a> of the American war effort with the phrase that it was \u201cmired in stalemate\u201d, Johnson reportedly said<\/a>: \u201cIf I\u2019ve lost Cronkite, I\u2019ve lost Middle America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Could the same thing be happening now?\u00a0As Trump was heading to his Situation Room, his vice president, JD Vance, was deeply engrossed in a three-hour chat with the country\u2019s biggest – some say the world\u2019s biggest – podcaster, Joe Rogan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A former reality TV host<\/a>, martial artist and Ultimate Fighting Championship commentator, the whisky-drinking, weed-smoking, gun-toting Rogan is the latest incarnation of the American macho man.<\/p>\n

Vance made three claims to Rogan that a serving vice president has never before made: that Trump could not bomb Iran into allowing normal traffic through Hormuz; that Israel was actively trying to undermine both him and his role as negotiator, and that Epstein, the late disgraced financier, had Mossad links<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some people within their (Israel\u2019s) system, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt, who are manipulating and trying to change American public opinion to keep the war going on indefinitely,\u201d Vance told Rogan<\/a>. \u201cNot toward any objective, but just indefinitely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shifting mood<\/strong><\/h2>\n

On the impossibility of bombing Iran into opening Hormuz, Vance said<\/a>: \u201cJoe, you could take $100,000 and go buy a bunch of drones on the black market and post yourself on an island in the Strait of Hormuz or near it, and you could fire drones at those ships. Now what does that mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cBut the people who are like, \u2018You cannot negotiate with the Iranians\u2019 – the reason why that\u2019s fundamentally idiotic is because so long as you have some person who is willing to fire off a few cheap drones, you\u2019re going to have some ship captains who say, \u2018No, no, no. We\u2019re not willing to do this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Rogan is no Cronkite, but he is the next best thing as a bellwether of what Middle America thinks. When future historians search for a moment when Middle America fell out of love with this war and with Israel, Rogan\u2019s interview with Vance would be a good candidate.<\/p>\n

Vance made sure he was loyal to Trump. He aimed his criticisms at a previous vice president in the first Trump administration, Mike Pence.<\/p>\n

But can you remember any serving vice president in any previous administration undermining a war that his president is waging, in real time, as he is waging it? I cannot.<\/p>\n