{"id":7025528,"date":"2026-08-03T19:05:34","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T19:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/the-muddle-minded-still-rule-at-the-washington-post\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T19:05:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T19:05:34","slug":"the-muddle-minded-still-rule-at-the-washington-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7025528","title":{"rendered":"The Muddle-Minded Still Rule at the Washington Post"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Photograph Source: Sdkb \u2013 CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n\u201cWords of advice for President Donald Trump as he tries to extricate himself from the mess of the Iran war: Just stop talking.\u00a0 Let America\u2019s overwhelming military and economic power do the work.\u00a0 Job one is still to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and I\u2019m all for the use of selective military power to get that done.\u00a0 If Iran keeps obstructing the strait, it invites a continuing military response\u201d\u00a0 (David Ignatius, The Washington Post, July 14, 2026, Opinion)<\/p>\n

For the past few decades, Ignatius has been an apologist for the Pentagon\u2019s use of force, the Central Intelligence Agency\u2019s use of covert action, and Israel\u2019s aggressive use of military power to secure its sovereignty.\u00a0 Once again, the United States is faced with a difficult geopolitical challenge of its own making, and once again\u2014like Ignatius\u2014politicians and pundits argue it will simply take more military power for the United States to achieve its misbegotten objectives.<\/p>\n

Ignatius has been a reliable stenographer in recording and repeating U.S. optimism regarding various peace plans that involve Israeli and U.S. national security interests.\u00a0 When Trump said in May that a \u201cpeace deal is near,\u201d Ignatius echoed the president.\u00a0 In June, Trump and Ignatius trumpeted their optimism once again.\u00a0 \u00a0Even the New York Times\u2019 leading Cold Warrior, Ross Douthat, understands that the war with Iran is a \u201cfolly and a snare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ignatius has been similarly optimistic about Trump\u2019s so-called \u201cpeace plans\u201d for Israel and the Palestinians as well as for Russia and Ukraine.\u00a0 Late last year, he praised Trump\u2019s\u2019 \u201chardball negotiating tactics\u201d and predicted that a \u201cdeal seems to be getting closer\u201d between Russia and Ukraine.\u00a0 He even believed that Trump was willing to extend an \u201cArticle 5-like\u201d mutual security guarantee for Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Neither Trump nor Ignatius saw the diplomatic and geopolitical contradiction in offering a nuclear deal to Saudi Arabia at the same time the United States was trying to stop Iran from trying to \u201cprocure or develop nuclear weapons.\u201d (See Paragraph 8 of the Memorandum of Understanding.)\u00a0 \u00a0Ignatius has never pointed out that any reference to a nuclear enrichment capability for the Saudis merely gives the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps greater incentive to maintain a capability for itself.<\/p>\n

Ignatius ignores the international opposition to the U.S.-Israeli war and lectures that \u201cit\u2019s time for global partners to join in an international coalition to keep the strait open.\u201d\u00a0 He favors \u201cmilitary escorts for commercial ships for as long as necessary\u201d and urges Trump to \u201ccollect a contribution from China when President Xi Jinping visits in September.\u201d\u00a0 His wishes remain the father to his optimistic thoughts.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Ignatius blithely tells the Iranians that they \u201cneed to think realistically about their options and resolve their internal differences.\u201d\u00a0 And if they don\u2019t, Ignatius says that the \u201cIranian regime is on a one-way street to an eventual demise, however long that takes.\u201d\u00a0 This is what Trump administration spokesmen keep telling us.<\/p>\n

Ignatius fails to understand that the United States didn\u2019t plan for protracted war against Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Iran.\u00a0 War planners typically plan for short wars because their civilian leaders known the negative political consequences of long ones.\u00a0 Trump signed off on Prime Minister Netanyahu\u2019s pursuit of regime change because he thought a military victory would be so quick and efficient that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps would not have time to mount a challenge to the U.S.-Israeli attack, let alone devise a scheme for closing the strategic Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

Trump had no idea of the strategic and tactical challenges he faced in Iran. He ignored a CIA director who dismissed the idea of regime change, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff who warned about the logistical and kinetic difficulties associated with steady use of scarce air defense and cruise missile weaponry.\u00a0 Secretary of Defense Hegseth and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Caine haven\u2019t held a joint press conference in the past three months because they have no way to explain their difficulties in dealing with questions on the war with Iran.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s problems with Iran are reminiscent of Russian and Israeli problems with Ukraine and Hamas, respectively.\u00a0 In 2022, President Vladimir Putin foresaw a short war with Ukraine, and even ordered his general officers to pack their dress uniforms for the victory parade in Kyiv.\u00a0 Fast forward, and we find that the Russian battle with Ukraine has already outlasted the Soviet battle with the Germans in World War II.\u00a0 The same could be said for Netanyahu who never respected Palestinian forces, and anticipated a short and manageable conflict with Hamas.<\/p>\n

There are no good ideas out there about ending any of these conflicts, but continued military bombardment of Iran, Ukraine, and Gaza does not appear to provide solutions.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photograph Source: Sdkb \u2013 CC BY-SA 4.0 \u201cWords of advice for President Donald Trump as he tries to extricate himself from the mess of the Iran war: Just stop talking.\u00a0 Let America\u2019s overwhelming military and economic power do the work.\u00a0 Job one is still to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and I\u2019m all for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7025529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100554,100555],"tags":[189156,2649,7318,14139],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7025528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-2015","category-leading-article","tag-muddleminded","tag-post","tag-rule","tag-washington"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Muddle-Minded Still Rule at the Washington Post - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7025528\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Muddle-Minded Still Rule at the Washington Post - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Photograph Source: Sdkb \u2013 CC BY-SA 4.0 \u201cWords of advice for President Donald Trump as he tries to extricate himself from the mess of the Iran war: Just stop talking.\u00a0 Let America\u2019s overwhelming military and economic power do the work.\u00a0 Job one is still to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and I\u2019m all for the […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7025528\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-03T19:05:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/22Save_the_Post22_rally_06.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1446\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7025528#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7025528\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\"},\"headline\":\"The Muddle-Minded Still Rule at the Washington Post\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-03T19:05:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7025528\"},\"wordCount\":815,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7025528#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/22Save_the_Post22_rally_06.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"MuddleMinded\",\"Post\",\"rule\",\"Washington\"],\"articleSection\":[\"articles 2015\",\"Leading Article\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7025528#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7025528\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7025528\",\"name\":\"The Muddle-Minded Still Rule at the Washington Post - 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