Much could go wrong for the US and the Middle East as Trump and Netanyahu pursue the disempowerment of Iran
Donald Trump, a self-confessed risk-taker, has taken the greatest gamble – not just with his political reputation and the future of the Middle East, but arguably with the whole concept of military intervention as a way to solve intractable geopolitical problems.
If the US president succeeds – and there will be many rival interpretations and metrics of success in the weeks ahead – it is possible he will have disempowered Iran, and diminished the global influence of a regime that has for 40 years sponsored threats against the west. In the process his personal authority will have been enhanced, and his next three years in office will be a triumph that may exacerbate some of his worst authoritarian and impulsive traits.
He will also have allied the US more closely than ever with Benjamin Netanyahu, a man deeply disliked in large parts of the world for Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and its assault on Gaza.
Under such a scenario, America will not be loved, but it will be feared, and from that fear will come deference. After the failures of ground interventions and occupations in Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11 and the Iraq war in 2003, Trump would have re-established the value of limited military intervention.
