{"id":44935,"date":"2026-06-16T17:21:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T22:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=44935"},"modified":"2026-06-16T17:21:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T22:21:29","slug":"lovers-betrayed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2026\/06\/16\/lovers-betrayed\/","title":{"rendered":"Lovers Betrayed?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This CNN<\/strong><\/em> headline sums it up:<\/p>\n

\u2018Trump has surrendered to Iran\u2019: Some prominent GOP hawks fear Trump just caved<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But let’s pull a bit more detail:<\/p>\n

\n

When President Donald Trump launched the Iran war in February, he risked alienating the non-interventionist base he had spent a decade cultivating.<\/p>\n

As he now tries to extract himself from the highly unpopular war, it looks increasingly like he might inflame the\u00a0other<\/em>\u00a0side of his base \u2014 the foreign policy hawks with whom he suddenly found himself in-league.<\/p>\n

While there are few hard details of what’s actually in the memorandum of understanding, or MOU, with Iran, those hawks are openly worrying that Trump gave away too much in the name of trying to end the war. They’ve made no secret that they fear Trump signing on to a nuclear agreement like the one struck by the Obama administration in 2015, which they (and Trump himself) derided as too weak for more than a decade.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>Which is to say that the neocons, who often advocate for wars such as the Iraq War, can’t stand the thought of compromise<\/em>. Maybe it doesn’t fit into their narrative of the invincibility of the American military, or the Mighty Hand of God that supposedly backs the Republicans and America – and, remember, they’re selling themselves to their audience, not measuring their pronouncements for their future accuracy. When Trump fails to deliver on his promises, their “success” is threatened – and he may be inspiring more backers to join the former backer<\/em> crowd, these days mostly made up of Epstein Files<\/strong> worriers.<\/p>\n

Conservative pundit Marc Thiessen, who I hardly read, is uncharacteristically angry, reports<\/a> MediaMatters for America<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n

\n

[H]awkish Fox contributor Marc Thiessen expressed concern about a deal on Monday\u2019s edition of Fox & Friends<\/em>, the president\u2019s beloved morning show. Thiessen, who has\u00a0reportedly advised<\/a>\u00a0Trump privately about the war, called\u00a0last week<\/a>\u00a0for a \u201cdecisive attack\u201d on Iran to \u201cfinish the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don’t know the details of the deal yet,\u201d Thiessen noted on Monday. \u201cWe don’t know what has been agreed to, and the nuclear part is still to be negotiated. This is just an agreement to negotiate the nuclear side. So that’s one problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Numerous pundits are expressing discomfort over the failure to release the MOU (peace framework) for their salivatory satisfaction. I see Trump delaying a release for personal tactical reasons, hoping to avoid more accusations of being a fool.<\/p>\n

He may end up bombing Iran again on Friday.<\/p>\n

Much like Thiessen, radio host and pundit Erick Erickson wants more war<\/a>, but he has reasons:<\/p>\n

Donald Trump started a war with Iran, and now he is ending it on terms worse than the status quo he inherited. That is the plain shape of what happened, however the White House and its surrogates dress it up.<\/p>\n

The war came at a price\u2014lost lives, oil markets convulsing, allies rattled, and an economic shock that rippled from Tehran to global commodity prices. What started as a strong campaign to end a regime is ending with subsidy and surrender by the Americans. We are choosing to give up.<\/p>\n

The ending arrives as a memorandum of understanding, signed on Sunday, whose full text the administration has been conspicuously slow to publish. When a deal is good, you release the text. When you guard it, you are managing a story rather than reporting a victory. Senator Lindsey Graham, no dove, has asked for the document and admitted he is concerned Iran reads the agreement differently than our own negotiators claim.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The big reason?<\/p>\n

And here is the failure that unites Obama and Trump, the blind spot neither administration will name: Mahdism, a religious belief that Iran must set the stage for the return of the Twelfth Imam, who disappeared from the planet as a child, but will return. The Revolutionary Guard promotes ideological zeal over competence. Devout believers in a militaristic Mahdism control Iran\u2019s three pillars of power\u2014its militias, its missiles, and its nuclear program. These are men for whom the destruction of Israel is not policy but prerequisite, a barrier to be removed so the Twelfth Imam may return. This is not opinion. It is the presuppositional foundation on which the regime operates.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have no idea if that’s anywhere near the truth, but I will note that Obama’s approach had a good chance of driving these folks, if they exist, out of power – peaceably.<\/p>\n

It’s also notable that a portion of the evangelicals in the Republican Party have, in broad outline, similar beliefs. They believe they can precipitate the end times, a religious doctrine of how the Christian universe ends. It involves rivers of blood, so my reader can evaluate for themselves.<\/p>\n

Of course, The New York Times<\/strong><\/em> is no ally of Trump, but I’ll finish with their biting summary<\/a> of the likely final results:<\/p>\n

\n

On balance, Iran emerges the strategic winner of the four-month war. It did suffer substantial losses, including much of its navy, air force, military-industrial capacity and political leadership, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader,\u00a0who was killed<\/a>\u00a0on the war\u2019s first day. With the war ending, however, Iran\u2019s leadership can begin rebuilding.<\/p>\n

The United States, for its part,\u00a0looks weaker<\/a>\u00a0in the eyes of the world. The American military has shown itself unable to quash a much smaller opponent even as it\u00a0burned through<\/a>\u00a0many of its long-range precision missiles and interceptors. The outcome damages this country\u2019s ability to deter other potential adversaries. To begin to repair the damage, the United States would be wise to mend alliances in Europe, the Middle East and Asia that have been frayed by the war\u2019s military and economic effects. The Pentagon will also need to modernize and\u00a0prepare for the wars of the future<\/a>. Neither is likely to happen under President Trump.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This CNN headline sums it up: \u2018Trump has surrendered to Iran\u2019: Some prominent GOP hawks fear Trump just caved But let’s pull a bit more detail: When President Donald Trump launched the Iran war in February, he risked alienating the non-interventionist base he had spent a decade cultivating. As he \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44935"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44940,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44935\/revisions\/44940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}