Huge number of casualties and indecisiveness of drone/missile based ground invasion would color Trump the same way that Iraq-Afghanistan wars colored George W. Bush, may be even worse. Trump will not take it, thank you very much.
WASHINGTON -- President Trump told aides he is willing to end the U.S. military campaign against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed, administration officials said, likely extending Tehran's firm grip on the waterway and leaving a complex operation to reopen it for a later date.
In recent days, Trump and his aides assessed that a mission to pry open the chokepoint would push the conflict beyond his timeline of four to six weeks. He decided that the U.S. should achieve its main goals of hobbling Iran's navy and its missile stocks and wind down current hostilities while pressuring Tehran diplomatically to resume the free flow of trade. If that fails, Washington would press allies in Europe and the Persian Gulf to take the lead on reopening the strait, the officials said.
There are also military options the president could decide on, but those aren't his immediate priority, they said.
Over the past month, Trump has expressed various opinions in public on how to handle the strait, part of a larger pattern of giving conflicting goals and objectives of the war overall. He has at times threatened to bomb civilian energy infrastructure if the waterway isn't reopened by a certain date. On other occasions, he has played down the importance of the strait to the U.S. and said its closure is a problem for other nations to solve.
Trump said on Monday the U.S. would destroy Iranian energy sites and water infrastructure if discussions with a "new, and more reasonable regime" didn't amount to a deal and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz The president posted the comments on social media after Iran said it considered the U.S.'s 15-point peace plan to be largely made up of "excessive, unrealistic and unreasonable demands."
The longer the strait remains closed, the more it will roil the global economy and boost gas prices. Multiple countries, including U.S. allies, are reeling from the downturn in energy supply that once flowed freely through the chokepoint. Industries that rely on items such as fertilizer to grow food or helium to make computer chips are suffering from shortages.
Without a swift return to safe passage for energy exports, Tehran will continue to threaten world trade until the U.S. and its partners either negotiate a deal or forcibly end the crisis, analysts say.
Suzanne Maloney, an Iran expert and vice president at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington, called ending military operations before the strait is open "unbelievably irresponsible."
The U.S. and Israel started the war together and can't walk away from the fallout, Maloney said. "Energy markets are inherently global, and there is no possibility of insulating the U.S. from the economic damage that is already occurring and will become exponentially worse if the closure of the strait continues," she said.
Trump's desire to end the war quickly is at odds with other moves he is planning to make. This weekend, the USS Tripoli and the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit entered the region. Trump has also ordered elements of the 82nd Airborne and is considering sending another 10,000 ground troops to the Middle East, The Wall Street Journal reported. Meanwhile, he has referred to the war as "an excursion" and "a lovely stay," yet he is also weighing a complex and risky mission to seize the regime's uranium, the Journal reported.
On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the U.S. was "working towards" normal operations in the strait, but didn't list it among the core military objectives of targeting Iran's navy, missiles, defense industry and ability to make a nuclear weapon.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking to Al Jazeera, said the current campaign to complete U.S. military objectives will be finished within weeks.
Around 20% of the world's oil supply is transported through the strait, and in 2024, 84% of crude oil and 83% of liquid natural gas shipped through the strait was bound for Asian markets, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Iran's grip on the strait led the benchmark price of U.S. oil to close Monday at over $100 a barrel for the first time since 2022, and some financial analysts project it could surge to $200 a barrel if the war causes sustained disruption.” [1]
1. Trump Looks to Exit With Strait Still Closed --- Goal is to limit Iran war to a few weeks; reopening passage could come later. Ward, Alexander; McGraw, Meridith. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 31 Mar 2026: A1.
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