AP Photo/Alex Brandon
President Donald Trump tempted fate on Wednesday by declaring “Mission Accomplished” in Iran.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched the war on Iran on Feb. 28 after Netanyahu lobbied Trump in the White House Situation Room earlier that month. The prime minister insisted that the Islamic Republic was ripe for regime change and could be toppled with a robust bombing campaign. While Israeli airstrikes killed then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the regime remains intact, with Mojtaba Khamenei now in charge. Trump said on Wednesday he believes the younger Khamenei is alive “but very seriously wounded.”
Whatever the status of Iran’s leadership, the country has maintained a stranglehold on the vital Strait of Hormuz, which Trump falsely claims the U.S. “totally” controls. The U.S. has reportedly nearly exhausted its supply of long-range precision missiles during the war.
Despite all that, Trump posted an image of himself standing over two signs. One says “Mission Not Accomplished 2001-2021,” accompanied by an image of Bush. The second sign says “Mission Accomplished 2026,” with an image of the elder Khamenei.
While Khamenei is dead, Trump’s stated aim was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear program, which he claimed last year was “totally obliterated” in another set of joint U.S.-Israeli strikes. But in testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee in March, then-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Iran did not have a nuclear weapons program when the war began in February.
The reference to Bush appears to refer to the war in Afghanistan, which ended after former President Joe Biden withdrew the last remaining U.S. soldiers from the country. Bush was the star of an infamous moment regarding the Iraq war in 2003, when, while standing on an aircraft carrier in front of a banner reading, “Mission Accomplished,” he declared an end to major combat operations, at a time when the insurgency in the country was just beginning.
The aircraft carrier in question was the USS Abraham Lincoln, which, 23 years later, is again back in the news for the wrong reasons, with sailors aboard describing deteriorating conditions on board. Multiple service members even attempted to jump ship. The vessel had been deployed in the Middle East since November, but on Wednesday, the Pentagon said the ship would head to Thailand and dock for the first time in more than 250 days.
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