JINSA's John Hannah: President Trump "Checkmated" by Iran (NewsNation)

Описание: JINSA Randi & Charles Wax Senior Fellow John Hannah, former National Security Adviser to Vice President Cheney, joined NewsNation to offer a frank assessment of the constraints facing President Trump as Iran and the U.S. continue trading strikes in what he described as a dangerous grey zone that has now persisted for two months.

Hannah argued that both sides are still using these skirmishes "to improve their bargaining positions and increase leverage," but that there is always a real risk of miscalculation that could drag the conflict back to full-scale combat. He pointed to the Apache helicopter downing as exactly the kind of incident that, had it gone worse, could have sent both sides "off to the races." On the president's options, Hannah was unusually candid, arguing Trump has not been provided with "compelling military solutions to the two big threats" — reopening the Strait of Hormuz at acceptable risk and protecting Gulf energy infrastructure from Iran's residual missile and drone capacity. "Believe it or not, I don't think the president has a good way to protect that infrastructure," he said, adding that military escalation in this environment "doesn't offer any clear strategic gain and comes at high risk." The result is that Trump is effectively "checkmated," looking for a negotiated way out that doesn't require paying Iran billions in frozen assets upfront or accepting something resembling the 2015 Obama nuclear deal.

Hannah also called for greater transparency from Pentagon leadership, saying that as an American citizen he believes officials should enlighten the public about the state of the war and where things are headed. He flagged the damage Iranian strikes have done to U.S. bases and equipment across the region as "one of the great surprises of this war" and said that once the guns fall silent, the U.S. will need to "learn some lessons and reevaluate exactly how we position ourselves in that part of the world."