Mearsheimer: We’re Not Winning War With Iran, And The Message To China Is We’re A Bunch Of Fools
Professor John Mearsheimer comments on the status of the U.S. war with Iran after two weeks during an interview with Tom Switzer:
TOM SWITZER: Well, John, let’s bring China in here. Where does that fit in here? Because you have a lot of Western commentators, There was a column in the Australian newspaper just today saying that the US is targeting Iran in a strategic move to rein in China. And as you know, Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican from South Carolina, he says all of this is China’s nightmare. That’s what he told Fox News a few days ago. JOHN MEARSHEIMER: I don’t believe there’s any evidence that President Trump launched this offensive because he was concerned about China and saw this as a way of weakening China. I mean, it’s possible. TOM SWITZER: Could that be a consequence of this? And that’s bad news for China, isn’t it? I mean, because they buy more Qatari gas and Gulf oil than anyone. Correct? JOHN MEARSHEIMER: Well, there are other places you can get oil, Tom. One of them is Russia. And we ought to talk about what this war is doing for Russia. What this means for the Ukraine war. This is wonderful news for Vladimir Putin. TOM SWITZER: Well, I was just going to say – because a lot of the same critics saying this is bad news for China are saying that the U.S. smashing Iran also sends a clear signal to Moscow in its war with Ukraine. How’s that argument playing out? JOHN MEARSHEIMER: We’re not winning against Iran. We’re not winning. What message are we sending? We’re sending a message that we’re a bunch of fools – that we started a war we can’t win. The Financial Times had a big editorial today. The Financial Times is usually very sympathetic to the United States and the various cockamamie schemes that we come up with. The Financial Times usually supports us. They’re saying we had no objective, no clear objective. We didn’t have the required military forces to achieve any of the objectives that we were floating, and we had no plan. That’s what they say. And of course, they’re correct. So the question you want to ask yourself is: What does this tell the Chinese, and what does it tell the Russians? It tells them that we are incompetent. And of course, the Russians have had enough dealings with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to fully understand just how incompetent we are.
