The 51³Ô¹ÏÍø, which Donald Trump started in February for no good reason and which could flare up again at any moment, broke a streak of easy American military wins. This raises a question for other countries that the U.S. president might coerce or attack, from Cuba to Nigeria and from Danish Greenland to North Korea: Will the strategic fiasco in the Middle East make Trump more gun-shy or even more trigger-happy?
A consensus among national-security insiders in Washington is that Trump launched the war at least in part out of hubris after scoring what he perceived as several easy military triumphs elsewhere.
Some of the bombings he has ordered in his second term, such as those in Yemen and Nigeria, achieved no identifiable strategic success but also cost little beyond the hardware expended. By contrast, the massive strikes against Iran in June were militarily masterful and did set back Tehran¡¯s nuclear program. And the Hollywood-style capture of the Venezuelan dictator in January persuaded Trump that the U.S. military could deliver quick and decisive regime ¡°decapitations¡± anywhere, without the risk of American casualties or quagmires.
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