What does Trump want? Gulf states have no answer as Iran war escalates
America’s allies in the Middle East are caught in a security paradox while being battered by the lack of a clear US strategy for the region.
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An anti-US graffiti on a street in Tehran, Iran, on July 20.
PHOTO: EPA
Joseph Chinyong Liow
The temporary ceasefire that the US and Iran signed on June 17 is all but dead, with both countries now locked in a dangerous escalatory spiral. For the US, the stakes have increased with two deaths as a result of Iranian strikes on American facilities in Jordan. However, without a clear strategy and accompanying objectives clearly laid out by the commander-in-chief, the US faces the real prospect of being dragged into yet another long-drawn war in the Middle East.
The famed Chinese strategist Sun Tzu once advised: “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” Those words are as relevant today as they were during the Warring States period of Chinese history more than 2,200 years ago.
