Hours after President Donald Trump pitched an angry tantrum at US allies, he reportedly demanded that they draw up plans to help fix the geopolitical and economic disaster he caused by launching his illegal war with Iran.
In a Wednesday night social media post, Trump posted an all-caps tirade against members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) who refused to commit forces to fight in a war he started without their approval or even consultation.
“NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN,” Trump wrote. “REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!!”
As Trump was attacking longtime allies, he was simultaneously demanding their help.
According to a Thursday report from Bloomberg, the US has been seeking “specific commitments from European allies on their pledge to help secure the Strait of Hormuz after the fighting in Iran stops,” going so far as to request that they “present concrete plans to ensure navigation through the waterway within days.”
Trump last month tried strong-arming allies into sending their navies into the strait to help secure safe passage of commercial vessels, but all of them refused.
Even as Trump is berating allies, he still hasn’t achieved the primary goal of the ceasefire he announced on Tuesday: The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has kept shut down since the start of the war more than a month ago.
As Bloomberg reported on Thursday, ship traffic through the strait has “remained blocked,” being “limited to a handful of Iran-linked ships, another sign that a fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran has yet to improve flows through the world’s key energy chokepoint.”
As the strait has remained shut, the price of Brent crude petroleum futures, which initially crashed upon news of the ceasefire deal, have been slowly climbing back up to the $100 mark.
Given Trump’s failure to achieve even the most basic tenet of his own ceasefire deal, many critics questioned why US allies should commit to helping him clean up his own disaster.
Dominic Waghorn, international affairs editor at Sky News, noted that “neither a military escort nor military force can reopen the Strait short of a full scale occupation of southern Iran and even then insurgents could keep it closed with the threat of action.”
Journalist Marcy Wheeler observed that Trump’s demands show he “is utterly helpless to fix the disaster he personally caused,” and is now “trying to blame others for his own incompetence.”
Economist Dean Baker encouraged US allies to remain completely defiant of the president.
“The European countries should specifically commit to pay the toll Iran is requesting,” Baker wrote.
HuffPost White House correspondent SV Dáte summarized Trump’s geopolitical strategy as follows: “I broke it, someone else can fix it.”
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