‘TRUMP DIDN’T HAVE THE SENSE’: Jeffrey Sachs explains how Netanyahu pulled US into war against Iran

This is, of course, a war that never should have happened. It's even too dignified to call it a war of choice. I would call it a war of whim because this was not a war that was necessary, advisable, thought through, planned, or supported inside the United States. to put it uh bluntly uh israel has wanted the united states to wage this war for decades i shouldn't say israel i should say mr netanyahu who's the prime minister of israel when the war started he said in a tweet he wrote in a tweet this is my dream of 40 years and i had to apologize because to many people because I had been saying that it was his dream for 30 years which I knew because he became prime minister 30 years ago but I didn't know the pre-prime ministerial passion for war with Iran this is something that has been in Netanyahu's head for a long time it's a disastrous idea Donald Trump bragged if I could put it in quotation marks, that while the other preceding six presidents had said no, he stood up and said yes. But I think what we could say is the six preceding presidents had the good sense not to do this, even though Israel was urging it, and Donald Trump did not have the good sense to avoid this disaster. We have a pretty good account, as I'm sure everybody here knows, of how the decision was made. There was a meeting of Netanyahu and the head of Mossad with Trump and his team, as it were, his Secretary of Defense, rechristened Secretary of War, Mr. Hegseth, his son-in-law, Mr. Kushner, his friend and fellow real estate advisor and now our leading special envoy, Mr. Witkoff, the head of the CIA and the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his chief of staff, Susan Wiles. Not many other people. And Netanyahu came and said, this is a sure thing. One day, take out the leadership, people will rise in the streets, and the next day you'll be in charge Mr. President and Trump could not resist an appeal like that, what we're told in the news is that everyone else in the room either said this is farcical this is absurd or grumbled under their breath, nobody spoke in favor of it with the possible exception, I think Hegseth probably did speak in favor of it but nobody else did Others said, including the vice president, I disagree, but I will support you, Mr. President. And this was the general sentiment in this small meeting. And Trump has eliminated any kind of systematic interagency analysis, feedback, or deliberation. We're in a deinstitutionalized environment in the United States. we don't have rational decision-making and normally under our Constitution also but normally a president would also consult with senior congressional leaders even as a political precaution but also to get advice and Trump did not do that either so I think the starting point in asking how do we get out is to understand how we got in. We got in on a completely flimsy, indeed, as somebody said, farcical rendition of what would happen, which is that you would kill the leadership that was meeting, apparently, to discuss the next phase of negotiation with the United States, which was ongoing and where the Omani mediator had said great progress was made and we will meet in Vienna the next week. So they were meeting precisely about negotiations that were now to be bombed rather than to be pursued. And the decision was taken by one person. I regard a lot of what the Trump administration does as illegal, as unwise, as unconstitutional. As I said about the tariffs last year repeatedly, and the Supreme Court finally validated that, I would say the same with this decision. So getting out is, well, in a way it can be as easy as getting in. The United States should just stop what it's doing, which is threatening Iran and blockading, at least partially, the Gulf region and Iranian ships, and just stop what was a disastrous, mistaken, illegal, unwise operation that never should have occurred. And the United States could certainly say to Israel, we're stopping, you're stopping, period. Because Israel can't do anything without the United States. And the idea that Israel commands the United States to do things is not right, although behaviorally it looks like that, because the United States at any moment could tell the Israeli leadership, no, we're not doing it, and you're not doing it, and that would be the end of it. I don't think that this should wait for any kind of negotiated outcome between the United States and Iran. I don't see that as in the works, nor do I see it as necessary. What I do believe is that the United States should end the blockade and go home. And Trump can say it was a great victory. He can say whatever he wants.