Schrödinger’s War: Conflict in Iran Is Both Over and Just Getting Started

You can say what you want about Donald Trump, but, in the case of when the US’s “special military operation” in Iran will end, he will be proven right. That’s not because the president is particularly prescient, but rather because he has predicted every possible scenario from a quick end to the fighting to a rapid escalation.

Earlier on Monday, Trump told CBS that the conflict is wrapping up because Iran is finished.

“I think the war is very complete, pretty much,” he said in an apparent effort to calm jittery stock markets spooked by high oil prices and the prospect of a lengthy war.

The president based his assessment on the conclusion that Iran’s ability to fight back has been thoroughly destroyed.

“If you look, they have nothing left,” he added. “There’s nothing left in a military sense.”

That does sound as though the special military operation is about to end and everybody can go home.

But not so fast.

A little later, Trump told House Republicans at their retreat in Florida that, while the US had “already won in many ways, we haven’t won enough” and would “go forward more determined than ever.”

He affirmed that sentiment at the ensuing press conference.

“We could call it a tremendous success right now as we leave here… or we can go further,” the president said. “And we’re going to go further.”

But what exactly does that mean if, as Trump repeatedly stated throughout the day, Iran has no capabilities left to fight back?

Well, maybe they do. Certainly enough to impact trade through the Strait of Hormuz, which is driving up gasoline prices and making the president look bad at home, which is the gravest sin anybody can commit.

In a social media post later on Monday, Trump said that, if Iran stops the flow of oil, it will be hit much harder.

“Additionally, we will take out easily destroyable targets that will make it virtually impossible for Iran to ever be built back, as a Nation, again — Death, Fire, and Fury will reign upon them,” the president stated in what certainly sounds like the threat of committing the war crime of targeting civilian installations.

Adding to the confusion was a statement from former Fox News morning show host and current Secretary of Special Military Operations Pete Hegseth, who said, “This is only just the beginning.”

When asked to reconcile that contradiction and who is right, Trump waxed poetically.

“I think you could say both,” the president said. “It’s the beginning of building a new country.”