The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board railed Sunday that President Donald Trump's Iran strategy has become impossible to follow.
In an Aug. 2 opinion piece, the board dissected Trump's latest reversal with his Saturday night announcement that he was calling off a planned attack on Iran after claiming Tehran and other Middle Eastern nations had agreed to the outlines of a deal. Trump said the terms would include reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ending Iran's nuclear program, but he offered no other details.
The board opened by needling Trump.
"A friend quipped the other day that President Trump truly deserves the Nobel Peace Prize because he has already ended the Iran war eight times. Will the ninth time be the charm after his latest decision to call off a military escalation in search of a deal with the revolutionary regime?"
The board described his stop-start pattern, swinging from threats of annihilation to sudden talk of peace, as his "chaotic way of war," and argued the approach leaves Americans unsure of what his aims even are.
"He may think it keeps the enemy guessing, but it also keeps the American public unsure of what his war aims are or how he hopes to achieve them. No wonder the polls show voters have soured on the war," the board said.
The editorial noted Trump spent the week building toward a military response before the abrupt about-face. Saudi Arabia's state news agency reported Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had asked Trump to stand down, and the board read that request as a sign Iran now holds the upper hand.
"If that’s true, it’s another sign that Iran now has escalation dominance in this conflict," the board chided.
The Journal has repeatedly hammered Trump on Iran and tariffs, going after him in June for failing to keep Hormuz open after Iran again shut down the waterway that carries roughly 20% of the world's oil trade.
Tehran, meanwhile, denied asking Trump to hold off at all. The semi-official Mehr news agency dismissed his account as a lie, and Iranian state media gave no sign a deal had been reached. The board's closing advice: judge Iran by what it does, not what either side promises.