The Lead
The Danger of Trump's 'Victory'
by Stewart Battle (EIRNS) — Aug. 18, 2026
On Aug. 18 the President of the United States posted an image of the Strait of Hormuz captioned “New U.S. Territory.” The same day, he announced that “there are no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled, with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” despite having claimed the opposite for the recent days and weeks, and insisted again that “the Hormuz Strait is open and operating,” despite all the evidence to the contrary. Asked Sunday about Oman’s move to co-manage the waterway with Tehran—an arrangement his own Memorandum of Understanding called for—he said: “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s—- out of them.”
These are not the actions and statements of a President who is calling the shots, but of one who is experiencing dangerous levels of delusion. And it is from this location that the true danger of the moment derives from—namely, desperation.
The Trump administration’s failure has been so severe, and the damage inflicted by Iran to American bases so great, that the Pentagon is quietly considering whether to pull back from the Persian Gulf altogether, in what the Washington Post called a “once-in-a-generation” change in policy. This follows the destruction of the U.S. fifth fleet’s hub in Bahrain, pushing ships to make the 2,200-mile transit to Diego Garcia to resupply; it follows the series of crises aboard the U.S.’s flagship aircraft carriers, the Abraham Lincoln and Gerald Ford; and it’s now been reported that the guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold lost power and drifted in the South China Sea for four days in late July, the second such failure in the Pacific Fleet this year.
In addition, reports are multiplying that Gulf nations are becoming frustrated with Washington’s mis-leadership in the region, and are themselves considering the utility of continuing to host large U.S. military installations on their territory. The mutual defense agreement signed between Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan earlier this month was “a signal to the U.S.,” one official said. Or, as the Turkish Foreign Minister said regarding the trilateral agreement, “External hegemons coming into the region do not solve the problems; they make them more acute.” Instead, he went on, “we need to build this together with the countries of the region,” and he even referenced the need for some kind of new “security and economic architecture.”
Considered in this context, the Aug. 18 statement by Marjorie Taylor Greene that Trump administration officials are “discussing using nuclear weapons on Iran” takes on a new degree of seriousness.
The danger the world faces today may now have reached one of the most extreme levels in recent history. It has been made so not only because of the unhinged nature of the Trump administration—as terrifying as that is—but because the official policy of the Anglo-American establishment going back to the end of the Cold War has been an uncompromising assertion of dominance over the world, with the implicit threat of annihilation against any nation or group of nations that would dare to challenge that. While Trump’s administration may be one of the most incompetent administrations, don’t think that it is not being egged on by the same Anglo-American imperialist circles that have held the reins for the recent decades. It therefore should be no surprise that Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby said at Strategic Command’s Deterrence Symposium on Aug. 5 that the U.S. is reviewing new strategies of nuclear employment in order to furnish the President with “credible nuclear options”—a doctrine built around the potential use of “tactical” nuclear weapons.
This is madness, and must be stopped immediately. As Helga Zepp-LaRouche warned in discussion with associates on Aug 17: “We have to make an all-encompassing appeal to the world. We have to make that so powerful that it breaks into all the media internationally. In the Global South media, there has to be a breakthrough in terms of reaching the world public, so that they know where we are at… that we are about to lose the entire civilization.” Making that known, and fast, is the important task before us.
Contents
Strategic War Danger
- Nuclear War Danger Seeps into Mainstream Media (↓)
- Kiev Attacked Rocket Plant for Russia's Space Program (↓)
New World Paradigm
Collapsing Imperial System
- US Military Re-evaluating Its Posture in Southwest Asia (↓)
- Persian Gulf States Growing Frustrated with Trump over Iran Debacle (↓)
- Turkish Foreign Minister Discusses New 'Security and Economic Architecture' for West Asia (↓)
- US Navy Ship Was Adrift for Four Days Without Power After Engineering Failure (↓)
- Iran Advises US To Admit It Made a Mistake and Leave the Region (↓)
Harley Schlanger Update
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