Trump and Putin both wanted a quick victory. They got forever war instead. - Ignatius WaPo
Look at our battered world, and you see two presidents, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, caught in wars that they are struggling to finish. There’s a common theme with the Iran and Ukraine conflicts that we might call “the power trap.” These two men can’t escape the consequences of their mistakes.
Both leaders thought their enemies would capitulate in weeks. Both ignored advisers who warned that victory wouldn’t come so easily. Both still believe they can dictate the outcome, even as the chances of full success recede. Both have isolated themselves in bubbles of adulation and ignorance. The closer each gets to retreat, the more they seem to think that they’re winning.
Trump’s entrapment becomes more obvious every day. It’s written on his face, as in his snarling tantrum before he stormed off the set of his interview last weekend with NBC’s Kristen Welker. He’s clearly so frustrated in his effort to find an exit ramp from Iran that he claims he doesn’t even “consider” the standoff in the Strait of Hormuz a war. “I don’t think about it,” he claimed to Welker. His demeanor said the opposite, as did his return to offensive military operations this week.
Putin is his twin in denying reality. He still calls the Ukraine conflict a “special military operation.” He believes he can dictate terms and compel Kyiv’s compliance. His Kremlin advisers increasingly whisper their doubts, but they don’t dare confront him directly.
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Leaders caught in this power trap are dangerous. They can’t bear to admit their earlier mistakes and correct them, so they press on. They live on flattery. They disdain “soft power,” and thereby squander it. They alienate old allies even as they keep making new enemies.
Caught in the Iran snare, Trump oscillates between threatening to extinguish Iranian civilization and offering Tehran terms so generous that they worry Gulf allies such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. He seems ready to jettison his Iran war partner, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His dismissive comment — “he’ll do whatever I want him to do” — has become a meme for the Israeli opposition.
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