Opinions of Peter Belmont
Speaking Truth to Power
| USA Needs to Make a Clean Break in Middle East |
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by Peter A. Belmont / 2026-05-09
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| This is my advice to President Trump. But will he take it?See THE CLEAN-BREAK PROGRAM next below and WOULD TRUMP EVER CHOOSE THIS PROGRAM? at end. The USA-Israeli war against Iran is going badly for the USA and Israel. THERE IS NO PAINLESS WAY FOR THE USA TO QUIT, NO PAINLESS “OFF-RAMP”. There is no painless way for the USA to get out of the Middle-East quagmire. All ways are painful. But ending the war quickly and decisively will open the Straight of Hormuz and minimize the economic disaster facing the USA and the world. And the war only ends when Iran is satisfied that the war has ended. So part of the puzzle is how to persuade Iran that the war has ended. And waiting is no answer. Iran can wait longer than the USA can wait. Every day that passes without the USA actually ending the war, whether that day be spent in fighting, spent claiming a “cease-fire”, or spent doing anything else short of actually ending the war, causes the world’s economy (and the USA’s economy) to move farther toward recession or depression. And the world’s depression will hurt the USA far more than it will hurt Iran. Iran can wait as long as it takes. So there is no easy way out, no convenient off-ramp, no palatable or politically risk-free alternative—but there is a best alternative: ending the war with a clean break. The clean break will persuade Iran as quickly as it can be persuaded that the USA has, indeed, actually ended the war. What Israel will do can be separated from what the USA does, but only if the USA makes a sufficiently clean break—a clean break from Israel as well as a clean break from the war. THE CLEAN-BREAK PROGRAM To persuade Iran that the USA has abandoned the war and also abandoned Israel (which the USA cannot reliably control), the USA should: DECLARE [1] a unilateral end of USA military operations in the entire Middle-East [2] USA’s intention to leave the Middle-East (from a military perspective) entirely, closing all its military bases and removing all its military assets REQUEST [3] Iran’s help (or non-interference) in the USA’s efforts to remove all USA Military equipment, supplies, and personnel from the Middle-East [4] that Israel terminate its non-defensive military operations in the Middle-East, notably in Lebanon, Syria, the West-Bank, and East Jerusalem, end its occupations there, remove its soldiers and police from there, end the closure of Gaza, and remove all settlers from the all occupied territories, notably from the West-Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and Syria SIGNAL TO IRAN ITS GOOD FAITH BY [5] terminating all deliveries to Israel from the USA of military items (weapons, munitions, equipment, spare-parts), and preventing physical delivery of any such things already sent from the USA but not yet in Israeli hands [6] terminating all deliveries to Israel from the USA of money [7] terminating all military co-operation between the USA and Israel including expelling from the USA all Israeli military personnel (notably from the Pentagon) and ending all intelligence co-operation between the USA and Israel. [8] reducing the size of the Israeli mission to the USA and sending home (ordering to be recalled) almost all the people working there—and reciprocally with the USA’s mission in Israel EFFECT OF ADOPTING THIS PROGRAM Adopting this program by the USA would make a CLEAN BREAK (in a military sense) for the USA from the Middle-East and its wars and, among other things, would show that the USA no longer participates in whatever would subsequently remain of the Israel/Iran, Israel/Lebanon, Israel/Syria, and Israel/Palestine wars, all of which should encourage both Iran and Israel to comply with its REQUESTS (set forth above). WOULD TRUMP EVER CHOOSE THIS PROGRAM? A friend writes: • Yes, but would anyone in the government have the courage to support this, besides perhaps the Squad? My answer: Weeeeeel, Not yet perhaps but people of both parties are getting fed up: • with Israel (or Netanyahu) • with this war in general • with the economic “returns” of the war which are already showing up (higher gasoline prices) and will be severe by summer I believe • with the known genocide in Gaza which USA supports for the same reason it went to war with Iran, namely, the Israel Lobby has far too much power and distorts American politics. and people of both parties will be highly displeased when they learn: • that most USA military bases in the M/E have already been severely damaged or destroyed and more may be in the offing as Trump continues his war-fighting • that Israel is fighting a genocidal war in Lebanon as well as in Gaza and is performing ethnic cleansing in the West Bank All of these considerations factor into the election coming in November and in preparation already. Trump is looking for an “off-ramp” and hasn’t found one. My suggestion is not intended to be palatable to Trump, just the BEST CHOICE among unpalatable alternatives. And it is clean and leaves Trump free to be concerned with China and forget the quagmire of the M/E. Is my suggestion an element of USA’s SUPERPOWER-SUICIDE? Not really, since the suicide for the USA in the M/E has already happened. But the idea of superpower-suicide is well set forth here. |
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