In an address to the nation on Wednesday night, filled with blustery rhetoric about the U.S.’s—and his own—brilliance, strength, and achievement, U.S. President Donald Trump claimed the core strategic objectives that led him to attack Iran were “nearing completion”—within two or three weeks, he estimated.
Describing the Iranian regime as an evil power hell-bent on producing nuclear weapons, Trump justified the military intervention as necessary to “systematically dismantle the regime’s ability to threaten America.”
While Trump’s speech did not add any new substantial information regarding the progress or end goal of the conflict, the idea of putting American troops on the ground in Iran was not mentioned.
“Regime change was never our goal,” the American president said, but added that regime change has indeed been the result, with a new leadership he described as less aggressive.
Regarding the worldwide rise in oil prices resulting from the war, Trump boasted of the United States being energy independent and even able to sell oil to other countries.
For the countries that can’t get fuel, he said, “many of which refused to get involved,” his advice was to “buy oil from the United States of America; we have plenty.” Or, he said, “build up some delayed courage; go to the [Hormuz] Strait and just take it; protect it.”
“The hard part is done,” he said, “so it should be easy.”
In the next sentence, however, Trump predicted that the Hormuz Strait “is going to open up naturally.”
Comparing the duration of the current military operation to World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, the Korean War, and the Iraq War, Trump proudly touted how much he claimed to have achieved: in 32 days, he said, “the country [Iran] has been eviscerated … The whole world is watching, and they can’t believe the brilliance of the United States military”
