«If Operation Epic Fury has truly ended, following the announcement of a two-week ceasefire on April 7th, it will have lasted nearly as long as Operation Desert Storm, the campaign to expel Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1991. A comparison of the two wars shows how much America has changed.
Back then, President George H.W. Bush sought approval from Congress and the UN Security Council before opening fire. This time round, Donald Trump did not bother with such formalities. Bush, who died in 2018, patiently persuaded 41 other countries to join America’s military coalition. Mr Trump started the war with one ally, Israel. He did not consult other allies, but then demanded they help when things got hard, and denounced them as “COWARDS” when they proved reluctant.
The elder Bush laid out a clear, limited objective: reversing one country’s seizure of another. Mr Trump offered a shifting array of goals, from destroying Iran’s missiles and nuclear programme to regime change.
Bush, who did not have access to social media, chose his words carefully. His terse response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 was “This will not stand.” Mr Trump has been more verbose and less measured. “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell—JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah,” he posted on Truth Social on April 5th.
The 41st president declared victory only after he had won, and in his victory address praised American soldiers and allies—but not himself. Mr Trump declared victory early and often. “We won. In the first hour it was over,” he boasted on March 11th. Despite being over in the first hour, it lasted nearly six more weeks, snuffed out hundreds of lives and made humanity measurably poorer.
On the morning of April 7th Mr Trump vowed to wipe out Iranian civilisation if the regime did not meet his terms. For ten and a half hours, the world wondered how seriously to take this astounding threat. Then he backed down, citing progress in negotiations. The next day he sounded cheerful. “This could be the Golden Age of the Middle East!!!” he posted on Truth Social, adding: “Big money will be made.”
The liberation of Kuwait from the Middle East’s most torture-happy despot marked a high point of American power—a unipolar moment after the end of the cold war. It also pushed Bush’s approval rating at home to nearly 90%. Democrats as well as Republicans applauded. Mr Trump’s war has been less well-received.»
Donald Trump’s ceasefire shows how America has changed
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This text is part of an article that was published on April 9th, and since then, Mr. Trump has proclaimed victory several times, threatened to annihilate Iran, and announced imminent agreements. There is a chasm between the US with a president like George H.W. Bush and the US with a cheerleader like Donald Trump.
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