The two-week truce agreed between the United States and Iran is good news in itself: it slows the escalation that has begun to ignite the Middle East and further strengthens the global economy.
But the way conditional fire was connected to this high level reveals an unpleasant truth: the presidency Donald Trump it set a political and moral threshold to which only the credibility of the West can reach a high level.
Trump came this morning to “deal with an entire civilization in one night” to proudly announce a “double truce” in the war with Tehran.
This sudden turnaround is not the fault of his tactical genius, but a symptom of an erratic foreign policy that is vacillating. between apocalyptic fanfare and last-minute improvisationwith the Pentagon, its nicknames and markets as atónitos the audience.
The reason given is not illegitimate. The Islamic Republic of the Ayatollahs is a repressive regime that is responsible for serious human rights abuses, systematic repression of women and dissidents, and military-wide prosecutions of violence throughout the region.
Anyone who creates in freedom can therefore call for an end to this theocratic tyranny or ignore that deterrence in the face of their nuclear and expansionist ambitions is a strategic imperative.
So war can have a just and necessary basis.
What is at stake today is not the goal (a free Iran of the Ayatollahs), until the form in which Casa Blanca decided to continue it.
The sequence that culminates in the truce speaks for itself. Trump drew attention to the issue by promising to devolve power to Iran “a la Edad de Piedra”, bombing power centers and hubs, and followed up with a line that horrified virtually every government on the planet: “tonight the whole civilization will die, so no one will stop.”
They are not just ugly words. I appreciate that the President of the United States was willing to put on the table the threat of massive destruction, something that is in direct conflict with international derech and the moral tradition of the West.
The international reaction was harsh. Governments, human rights experts and religious leaders have warned that deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure in this way would constitute a war crime.
pope Leo XIV he called the words “truly unacceptable” and called on citizens to urge their leaders to slow the spiral of war, noting that no just cause justifies a misunderstanding of “civilization”.
When the highest moral authority of the Catholic world is obliged to address the President of the United States in the language specific to the totalitarianisms of the twentieth century, whether this language is merely a rhetorical excess or even more a real joke, it is clear that a line has been crossed.
No less telling is the underground rebellion in Washington.
The European press has documented the fiercest opposition within his administration and the Republican Party to a clear conflict with no clear conclusion.
Senior military and security officials have warned of the threat of a second Iraq with a prolonged campaign against a more resilient enemy and areas saturated with dust.
The Trumpist base among conservatives applauds the show of force, but a significant portion of mainstream Republicans and young voters appear openly skeptical. before a “powerless” war that contradicts the promise to end “eternal wars”.
So the two-week truce is not the result of a carefully designed strategy of de-escalation to the sum of the limits: member alarm, anxiety in the markets, resistance in the Capitol, and the dizziness of the own security apparatus before the logic of “all or nothing” emanating from the White House.
In the face of Trump’s efforts to present the break as the fruit of a “very welcome” victory, they point to the opposite: the president tried to accept negotiations negotiated by third parties. After discovering that his hyperbolic rhetoric of extermination was not credible as a diplomatic tool.
None of this should be construed as leniency towards the Iranian regime. The Revolutionary Guard system is a theocratic dictatorship that can easily be replaced by a democratic regime, and the international community has an obligation to support those Iranians who seek to gain this freedom.
But that’s why it’s so damning that the planet’s major democratic power is allowed to engage in extermination or start wars without dirty politics.
When the language of the leader of the free world is directed at these obliterating adversaries in Tehran, the moral battle is lost, regardless of the military objective.
The current ceasefire opens up an opportunity. Iran agreed to reopen the Hormuz border under supervision and freeze attacks, and the United States held back its bombs for the first five weeks, talks are expected in Islamabad.
It is legitimate to seek an understanding to emerge from this process that combines nuclear weapons, navigational guarantees and a renewed presidency (economic, diplomatic and political) over the dictatorship of the Ayatollahs.
But for this peace to be stable and just, it is essential that Washington regains its sense of medicine. Who remembers that war can be just and even necessary, but it cannot become a scenario for the apocalyptic theater of a corrupt president.
Trump has now hit an emergency climb to the edge of the abyss brought about by the same man with his rhetoric. The truth of the United States and its allies is that the ultimate solution to the Iran problem lies not in solving the region with this chasm, but rather in implementing a difficult but compatible with the principles that distinguish liberal democracy from enemies who seek to destroy it.
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