Article #253589

This is a war without a plan, without a strategy, and without any clear understanding of where it leads or how it ends

I’ve spent the last several days checking with foreign policy experts, analysts and specialists in the Middle East for their understanding of Donald Trump’s real goal in Iran, and how anyone (including him) will know he’s achieved it.

Several told me that Trump is seeking the kind of “war” that the US executed in Venezuela – an abduction of a leader by special forces or, as in June, surgical airstrikes on locations where Iran appeared to be building nuclear bombs.

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now in the US and on 15 March in the UK