Iran War Deal Declared – But Will It Last?
An old law of journalism says, ‘any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no.’ As Trump enjoyed his birthday, his deal to end his illegal war prompted widespread questions.
On this day in 1974, Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein published ‘All the President’s Men,’ the definitive book on the Watergate scandal. Two months later, Richard Nixon became the first and so far only president to resign.
Good morning! Martin here, writing from the fetid swamp that is Washington, DC, in mid-June, a few miles up the hill from the worst of it and safely out of earshot, if not alas out of livestream reach, of events to mark the president’s 80th birthday at the White House. I hope you all read this email in more pleasant, air-conditioned climes.
In today’s ‘First Draft,’ we digest the flurry of news and statements and news about statements (and, go on then, statements about news) that happened Sunday, when a deal to end Donald Trump’s illegal war on Iran was announced to the world. At Zeteo, we were among the more skeptical observers. We also take a look at what happened when the Make-a-Wish president got to stage his big boy’s birthday party on the White House lawn, and consider what fresh hell might be coming down the tracks for Trump, thanks to authors Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.
Fool Me Once…
Early last week, CNN published a piece about Donald Trump’s incessant promises that an end to his illegal war on Iran was just around the corner.
“Including the period before the ceasefire,” Aaron Blake wrote, “he’s done it at least 38 times. That’s the number of times he’s said directly – in social media posts, public appearances and phone calls with the media – that a deal was nigh or claimed Iran was desperate to cut one.”
No deal had emerged, of course, and the war had devolved back into strike and counter-strike – not including Israel’s ongoing campaign of slaughter in Lebanon, which never truly paused.
And so, not least because Iran said an end to Lebanon strikes was a prerequisite for peace, when Trump spent the next few days claiming a deal was close, skepticism was common in response. According to Trump, a deal was likely over the weekend, perhaps by Sunday, as chance would have it, his 80th birthday. But Sunday did not dawn well, with news of an Israeli strike on Beirut that killed three and injured 16. Here, it seemed, we were about to go again: Trump’s inability to control Benjamin Netanyahu’s rabidly genocidal regime leading the U.S. back to war, and the world to ever-worsening economic problems, the Strait of Hormuz shut tight.
And then, the announcement came.