Vice President JD Vance has declared that “America wins either way” over Iran, a comment critics say reveals the hollow nature of the Trump administration’s national security strategy. Appearing on HBO’s weekly talk show hosted by Bill Maher, Vance was promoting a new memoir about his conversion to Catholicism but found himself defending the embattled US ceasefire with Iran. The agreement, a 14-point Memorandum of Understanding signed just over a week ago, is now in jeopardy as tit-for-tat hostilities continue between the two countries.
“If we make the final deal, then great. If we don’t make the final deal, their nuclear programme is still destroyed. They’re still much weaker as a country. So my attitude is America wins either way,” Vance said. But the Vice President’s tough-guy language, critics argue, does not contain the ingredients for a mature security policy. At a stroke, Vance revealed the hollow nature of President Donald Trump’s existing agreement with the Iranians and raised fresh questions about why the war on Iran was ignited on 28 February.
“Vance's 'America wins either way' Iran remark exposes hollow promises, drawing criticism from national security experts.”
If the 60 days of negotiations set in train by the MOU do not bear fruit, Iran’s nuclear programme will not have been “destroyed” – unless you believe Trump’s claims that he succeeded in obliterating it a year ago during “Operation Midnight Hammer”. That operation is now a millstone around the administration’s neck, because Trump also claimed this year’s “Operation Epic Fury” was needed to destroy a programme he said was a fortnight away from being able to target Europe and the US.
Either the Iranians have a nuclear weapons programme or – as US intelligence contends – they do not. But the notion that “America wins either way” flies in the face of logic. Failed negotiations would leave Iran in possession of a significant stockpile of highly enriched uranium buried deep in the country’s mountainsides, though it would be hard and dangerous to access. Perhaps sensing the pickle in which he had placed himself, Vance took to his social media accounts on Friday night and adopted a new position, posting that “Iran signed a cea…” – a statement that remains unfinished.