Almost incredibly, US president Donald Trump has asked China, the UK, France and other countries to deploy warships to the Persian gulf to ensure that international shipping – especially oil tankers – have safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz in the face of Iranian threats to blockade and mine such traffic.
I say “almost”, because nothing is truly incredible about Trump and his fawning appointees. Trump, JD Vance, Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth are astonishingly illiterate as strategists, tacticians, historians and politicians.
The roles played in his clown-show regime by his spouse, Melania, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner have at least one point of logic: a desire by the family to loot the massive frothy funds made available to them by America’s billionaire plutocrats in search of further enrichment, and by Arabian despots as a crude form of protection racket.
An Iranian navy vessel was torpedoed off the coast of Sri Lanka where it had been participating in joint naval exercises with Trump’s navy and those of other regional powers. Trump excused the disgusting, treacherous murder of many of its crew by saying he was told by a general that sinking the ship with a torpedo was “more fun” than letting them survive.
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That language can only be described as evil. And having inflicted an aerial bombardment on Kharg island, he threatened that he would complete its obliteration, if he wished, “for fun”. That is the language of a monster and a “cruel” man – the adjective applied to Trump by his own sister, a retired US federal judge.
Expecting that China and the UK would send warships to the Gulf instead of deploying his own navy is both absurd and grotesque. If China had established a naval presence in the region three months ago and had negotiated harbour facilities with any of the Gulf states, Trump would have described such actions as acts of war.
If Starmer now participates in Trump’s Israel-directed war by sending his depleted navy to the Strait of Hormuz, he will suffer the same ignominious exit as Anthony Eden suffered in the aftermath of the Anglo-Franco-Israeli war on Nasser’s Egypt in 1956
If the US president really wanted the UK to participate as an ally in his war on Iran, he might have asked it in advance to do so. He might have listened to the advice that a cornered Iran would use the oil supply weapon, if the US and Israel tried to destroy its state and its armed forces.
But Trump is not merely cruel but a coward. Willing to wage war on the weak and comparatively defenceless by unleashing air power that hazards the life of a very few occupants of cockpits – and none in remote command and control centres for missiles barrages – he will not put US troops on the ground to confront armed adversaries.
His own record, and that of his family, as expert and proven draft dodgers says a lot about Trump. His attendance at the reception of the bodies of the first casualties of his latest military “excursion” (not war) wearing the same USA baseball cap that he also wears playing golf speaks volumes about his disrespect and absence of empathy.
[ The majority of Americans oppose the Iran war. So why aren’t they protesting?Opens in new window ]
If Starmer now participates in Trump’s Israel-directed war by sending his depleted navy to the Strait of Hormuz, he will suffer the same ignominious exit as Anthony Eden suffered in the aftermath of the Anglo-Franco-Israeli war on Nasser’s Egypt in 1956. Starmer should be very careful of the advice he receives from the likes of defence secretary Ed Miliband – who said on Sunday that ministers were talking to their allies about how the UK could help secure the waterway – about co-operation with Trump’s war. Sending British sailors to the Gulf to take a hit for the US is a path to disaster. And it will cost the floundering Labour Party huge support, not least among the Muslim minority in the UK.
It is not for Nato allies to offer Trump an off-ramp from his madness. Western Europe may suffer seriously from the economic turmoil that Trump has unleashed. But Trump has already seriously damaged European interests by lifting oil sanctions on Russia. That damage will last.
Trump owes the world an explanation for starting a war that has caused an oil crisis. He owes American voters an explanation for his disastrous first year since re-election. He does not need to be rescued from himself by allies whom he openly threatens and derides.
Britain may feel that it has a special relationship with the United States – and it does. But that relationship is primarily with Americans – not with the clearly deranged occupant of the White House who can – and should – lose control over the House of Representatives at the least in November. Saving Trump’s bacon would be the ultimate folly for Starmer – a man for whom Trump’s administration team has scarcely concealed contempt.
After all, Trump’s generous offer to let China sort out the Strait of Hormuz still stands. Let’s see if it wants to bail out Trump. Somehow, I doubt it will.
