Trump's bombast on Iran added nothing

For the first four weeks of the U.S.-Israeli bombardment of Iran, President Donald Trump did not address the nation in a live White House speech. Finally, on Wednesday night, he did so — for 20 minutes. But his remarks fell far short of clarifying either the plans behind his war or the hazards ahead. It was not the least bit reassuring.

Sounding lethargic and slurring a bit, Trump said the United States would “finish the job very fast,” but gave no hint of a true time frame. He said the United States would “hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong.” Deployment of ground troops is still quite possible. But there was little clarity of the mission ahead for men and women in uniform and their families.

Trump’s walking away for now from any role in opening the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth to a quarter of the world’s oil supply sails, highlights the difficult challenges in unwinding this effort. The United States receives a significant portion of the helium supply needed to manufacture computer chips, and nitrogen needed for fertilizer, through the strait. And since the oil market is worldwide, surging prices could trigger a global recession. On Thursday, the real-time cost of a barrel of oil in the North Sea jumped to $140, the highest since the 2008 recession. But Trump suggested rather blithely that the strait is now other nations’ problem.

Trump speaks of quitting NATO. President Emmanuel Macron of France lashed out at the American president as less than serious about “men and women who are in combat” and “civilians who are being killed” and the war’s impact on economies.

Despite his claim Wednesday that “regime change” occurred in Iran after high-level officials in Tehran were killed, Trump has yet to reveal anything about his supposed peace negotiations with those who report to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei.

The president did not repeat his earlier appeal to dissidents to seize the government when possible — but did threaten to destroy the nation’s power grid, which would severely affect millions of Iranians whose hearts and minds the Western democracies would like to align with. Civil rights leaders and other protesters are still persecuted.

Trump’s prediction this will all be done in “two or three weeks” was undermined when he urged his audience to “keep this conflict in perspective” given the yearslong duration of past wars. That’s no comfort for the many Americans who fail to understand the goal but feel the hit on their pockets.

The almost universal negative reviews of his speech had to be a disappointment. Less than 12 hours later, Trump was trashing Bruce Springsteen’s looks on social media.

If the president is serious about ending this embroilment soon, he must become more artful in making a deal.