'Greatest foreign policy disaster': Michael McFaul criticizes Trump's handling of the Iran war

Back in February, President Donald Trump asserted that the military operation in Iran would be over quickly, and he has maintained that notion for the past five months. He has now resorted to threatening to "bomb the hell" out of Iran from time to time, while the interim peace deal and peace talks seem to crumble amid renewed fighting. Amidst the chaos, former United States Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul returned to his criticism of Trump's handling of what he called the "unnecessary war," labeling it the biggest foreign policy disaster in decades. 

After almost five months into a war that was supposed to be over in six weeks at most, Trump on Wednesday yet again threatened to strike Iran's bridges and power plants next week if it did not return to talks. In an interview with Fox News, the President said the power plants will be targeted last and that the U.S. military will be "hitting them hard" tonight and tomorrow. "We're going to knock out all their power plants. We're going to knock out all their bridges unless they get to the table and negotiate," he said. 

In a series of posts, McFaul blasted Trump, pointing out his mistakes. "Regarding foreign policy, all U.S. presidents should aim to advance the security and economic interests of the American people. By nearly every metric, Trump's war with Iran has accomplished the opposite, and with no end in sight," he wrote in a post on X. In another, he pointed out that the Strait of Hormuz was open for eight years under the Obama administration, and the U.S. didn't have to bomb anyone for that. He further pointed out that Iran didn't have a nuclear weapon during that time either, with the U.S. military's involvement. "Trump's unnecessary war against Iran should rank among America's greatest foreign policy disasters in decades," he wrote in another post.

The comments come as Trump retracted his threat to impose a 20% fee on all cargo shipping crossing the Strait, but resumed the blockade of Iranian ports. Despite signing the interim agreement, which ushered in a temporary ceasefire, the peace talks seem to have stalled with both sides carrying out strikes. The U.S. military on Tuesday confirmed that it hit "dozens of military targets near the Strait of Hormuz and Iranian coastal areas." U.S. Admiral Brad Cooper said Iran had "intentionally targeted civilians" in the region in its attack on seven commercial ships, which had resulted in "nearly a dozen civilian crew members killed, missing, or injured," the BBC reported. 

In retaliation, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned that the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed "until the end of America's evils," while threatening to target oil and gas export routes. It further claimed to have destroyed the U.S. Fifth Fleet's command center and support facilities in Bahrain, while also targeting major U.S. logistics hubs in Mina Abdullah, Kuwait. Meanwhile, shipping data showed that traffic through the Strait had slowed to a two-month low, pushing the benchmark Brent Crude oil price to over $80.