'Trump's reckless lurch towards war puts UK in the firing line'

Daily Mirror

4 hours ago

For years, Donald Trump told the American people - and the world - that he was different. That he wasn't like the warmongering presidents before him. That under his watch, the mistakes of Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan would never be repeated. 'Wars would never have started if I had been president,' he bragged time and again.
Now, with the dust still rising from the bomb craters left by American B-2 bombers over Iran, it's clear: that too was just another Trumpian lie. Last night, the US leader ordered airstrikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, using deep-penetrating 30,000lb bunker-busting munitions to inflict maximum destruction.
The move was taken without congressional approval. It came without debate, without explanation, and in direct contradiction to the very campaign promise that helped put him back in the White House: to avoid reckless foreign entanglements. And perhaps most damningly, it flew in the face of public opinion. In recent days, multiple polls showed a clear majority of the American public, including a majority of Trump's own MAGA supporters, opposed military action against Iran.
Americans, scarred by the ghosts of past misadventures, did not want another war. Trump knew this. He ignored them anyway. He wasn't just convinced to strike; he was willingly pulled in by Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu. Their personal bond - part political alliance, part mutual admiration society - overrode strategic judgment. Trump didn't just act because he believed in the threat; he acted because his friend Bibi wanted him to.
For decades, Netanyahu has insisted Iran was on the verge of acquiring a nuclear weapon. Since the mid-1990s, 'weeks away' has been his rallying cry. Yet presidents from Clinton to Obama, from Bush to Biden, resisted being drawn into direct conflict. They questioned the intelligence. They prioritised diplomacy. They knew war with Iran could unleash forces they couldn't control.
So what makes this moment even more dangerous is the brazen hypocrisy displayed by Trump. The US leader spent the better part of a decade presenting himself as the anti-war candidate. He vilified the architects of Iraq, mocked NATO, and promised to end the 'forever wars.' His 2024 campaign leaned heavily on that promise. His supporters believed him. Now they, like the rest of the world, are left to reckon with the truth: Trump was lying. Again.
And once more, Britain is being dragged into the fallout of a war it did not start and may not want. As one of America's closest allies, we are now faced with a grim and familiar choice: do we blindly follow Washington into another potential quagmire, or do we finally draw a line and put British interests, and British lives, first?
There is no easy answer. Iran has already vowed to retaliate. Its network of militias and regional proxies extends across the Middle East. British troops served alongside Americans in Iraq, Syria, and the Gulf. Our ships patrol the same waters. Our intelligence services are tightly bound to theirs. But this is no longer a distant threat. It is immediate.
And it didn't have to happen. Trump had options.
He was urged by advisers inside and outside the White House to hold back. Some argued that the US could support Israel through intelligence sharing and non-lethal means. They warned that striking Iran directly could pull America (and its allies) into an open-ended war with no clear objective and no public mandate. Trump dismissed them. Worse, he acted with his goon squad, circumventing Congress, silencing dissent, and pursuing a path that looks more like personal vengeance than national security.
For Britain, the question is urgent: How much longer can we afford to tie ourselves to a man who governs by whim, not wisdom?
Who says one thing on the campaign trail and does the exact opposite in office? We've followed America into too many disasters already. Do we really want Iran to be next?
What must happen now is this: Parliament must urgently debate our position. There must be no quiet complicity, no unspoken assent. If we are to support this action - or not - it must be done transparently and with full public scrutiny.
The American people, those who voted for peace, not war, must hold their president to account. Trump has broken faith with his supporters and with the world. If this war expands, if lives are lost, if allies are drawn in, he must bear the blame.
Trump once insisted that he, and he alone, could keep America out of war. With last night's reckless strike, he has proved the opposite. And once again, Britain is left standing at the crossroads of loyalty and self-preservation, wondering how much longer we can afford to follow a leader who cannot be trusted to tell the truth, much less keep a promise.