Senator warns that Trump is 'humiliating' the US by ending war on 'Iran's terms'
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) delivered a scathing assessment of Donald Trump's Iran ceasefire Sunday, welcoming the end of the war while warning that the deal represents a humiliating capitulation to Tehran that leaves the United States weaker than when the conflict began.
"If this deal with Iran is real, I will welcome it because every day this insane war goes on, America gets weaker," Murphy wrote in a detailed thread on X. "But make no mistake: these are Iran's terms. Our nation emerges humiliated."
Murphy laid out his case methodically. The deal, as he understands it, gives Iran billions of dollars to return to essentially the same position it was in before the war started — while reports suggest it may also codify Iran's right to control the Strait of Hormuz, the critical waterway that has remained at the centerpiece of the violent conflict.
"What a disaster this whole thing was," Murphy wrote.
On the nuclear question — the issue Trump cited most prominently as justification for the war — Murphy was equally dismissive. The one reported concession from Iran, a promise to ship out enriched uranium, was already part of Barack Obama's 2015 nuclear deal. And by dropping sanctions now, Murphy argued, the United States has surrendered the leverage it would need to extract further concessions in future negotiations.
Meanwhile, Murphy noted, Trump has failed to achieve a single one of his stated goals. Iran's ballistic missile and drone program remains intact. Its navy retains the ability to close the Strait. The hardline regime is still in power.
"They took our best shot and beat us," Murphy wrote. "Iran emerges more powerful."
The Connecticut senator was careful to separate his opposition to the war from opposition to ending it. Thousands of innocent people have been killed, he noted, and the American economy has been badly damaged by the conflict. But he argued that silence about the incompetence that produced the war would be its own kind of failure.
"That doesn't mean we should be silent on how incompetent Trump is and how insane this war was from the start," Murphy wrote.