WILL TRUMP STICK TO HIS IRAN MUST SURRENDER UNCONDITIONALLY DEMAND OR IT IS JUST A NEGOTATING TACTIC?

HAMAS CONTROLLING HALF OF GAZA SHOULD PROVE TO HIM WHAT ANYTHING LESS THAN UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER MEANS.

Peloni

Pres. Trump released the statement that he will be pursuing “no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER”.   It is an important undertaking to make such a statement, as it gives the enemy regime no hope of survival, and its members no hope of maintaining their grip on power.

This of course comes nearly within hours of Trump having recently indicated his desire to choose someone from within the regime to take over ruling the post-War period.  Additionally, we should recall the warning made by Dr. Mike Doran of the Hudson Institute who recently noted that the IRGC is too well integrated into the established economy of Iran for it to be irradicated and dissembled from whatever the Day After the war might include, making it a foregone conclusion that some form of deal would in fact be required to end the war with any form of victory by the US, which would clearly not be an Unconditional Surrender.  In fact, everything Trump has stated up to this point has indicated that Doran’s conclusion that Trump’s vision of victory would in fact be that of Regime Transformation rather than that of Regime Change, the latter being the implication of Trump’s above call for Unconditional Surrender.

Of course, we have heard Trump employ the term Unconditional Surrender, once before, with regards to Hamas in Gaza.  Let us hope that the abysmal failure of seeing Hamas restored to power in half of Gaza, as it continues to daily pursue its policy of attempting to body snatch members of the IDF for further negotiations, will serve to inform the Trump administration’s understanding regarding the outcome of such negotiations with barbarians and terrorists.

So, with all of this in mind, we have to ask ourselves if this statement regarding Unconditional Surrender is an attempt to honestly channel the policies of Gen. Grant/Pres. Roosevelt or if it Pres. Trump is once again employing a maximalist demand so as to have a better bargaining position as he positions himself to bargain back to what he previously indicated was his goal in some upcoming negotiated settlement, ie to hand the power in Iran over to some internal element within the existing regime, all as he claims victory.  Let us hope that the policy pursued in the coming week/months will be the former, but it does seem more likely that it will be the latter.  Notably, the US has no stomach for committing ground troops, and the all-important US midterm elections are approaching with gas prices rising, the building pressure for Trump to accept terms will only increase with time, and this is not something which will likely be be unknown to the remaining elements of the current regime.

The benefits of pursuing unconditional surrender are significant, but it remains to be seen if Trump has the interest or political capital needed to pursue such a stabilizing choice.