The article warns that the ongoing, deadlocked US war in Iran, initiated by Donald Trump, is a global catastrophe with severe humanitarian, economic, and geopolitical consequences, potentially more damaging than past US conflicts. It argues Trump is trapped between escalating war crimes or accepting a humiliating defeat, neither of which is tenable. With global approval ratings plummeting and the world suffering immense harm, the author urgently asks who will stop Trump, proposing radical collective action from international governments and American citizens.
The article describes the US war in Iran, now in its fourth month, as a "deadlocked" "fiasco" whose negative international humanitarian, economic, and geopolitical fallout is proving more permanently damaging than previous US quagmires in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam. It highlights the urgent question: "who will stop Donald Trump?" The author asserts that Trump, egged on by Benjamin Netanyahu, is "boxed into a corner," facing a choice between resuming illegal bombing on a larger scale, risking war crimes, or accepting a negotiated compromise that falls short of his initial aims, such as eliminating Iran's nuclear program, and leaves a strengthened, hardline regime. Neither option is deemed attractive or tenable, as bombing has proven ineffective, and a peace deal would be an "abject Trump failure" and a "landmark US strategic defeat" with global implications. The article details the immense, possibly irreversible harm caused worldwide: * **Humanitarian:** Doubled food prices in poor countries like Somalia, fertilizer shortages threatening famines, and the World Food Programme predicting 45 million more people facing acute hunger, exacerbated by foreign aid cuts. * **Economic:** Spiraling energy, fuel, food, and commodity prices penalizing developed countries, leading the IMF to cut global growth forecasts and imposing a "Trump war tax" on ordinary people. * **Geopolitical:** The US is publicly at odds with key allies (Germany, France, Britain, Gulf states), boosting Russia, hurting Ukraine, and confirming China's growing global ascendancy due to Trump's failure to secure its help on Iran. The author argues that this "unprovoked, avoidable conflict" undermines democratic accountability, political stability, human rights, international conventions, and common sense. It calls for "radical, concerted action" to stop Trump. Proposed solutions include: * Western governments leveraging their influence (e.g., UK's "special relationship," France's "coalition of independence"). * United action from international bodies like the EU, African Union, G20, and BRICS, potentially leading to downgraded ties, sanctions, and tariffs against the US. * Pressure from the UN Security Council, with France and the UK joining China and Russia to demand an end to hostilities. * NATO members suspending non-Ukraine military cooperation, restricting US bases, and sending US ambassadors home. * Symbolic actions like boycotting the World Cup or US brands. Most directly, the article emphasizes pressure from American citizens through Congress and by punishing Trump and his "spineless Republican enablers" in the midterm elections. The piece concludes by framing Trump's Iran war as a symptom of "Trumpism," a "global pandemic" that must be stopped by "bold, radical and imaginative collective intervention" by the US's friends.
