Tom Friedman's NYT opinion piece . . .

[AverageOldGuy]

. . . lays bare the truth about Trump's disaster in iran. May be behind a paywall.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/26/opinion/iran-deal-trump-us.html

Only two questions remain regarding the U.S. war with Iran. One, how big a plate of crow will President Trump have to eat to end this conflict with at least some achievements? And two, will he tell us the crow he’s eating is lobster or filet mignon?

Personally, I am fine if Trump has to eat a pile of crow — for instance, the “unconditional surrender” of Iran that he promised will not be coming his way — if it results in Iran relinquishing its roughly 1,000 pounds of near weapons-grade uranium. It would take the immediate threat of an Iranian bomb off the table, and that would be a very good thing.

But please spare me the nonsense that Trump has secured a perfect and delicious deal. Because securing that highly enriched uranium will not only leave the vile, murderous Islamic republic regime in power (and still holding some 10 tons of low-enriched uranium) — but actually strengthen it in troubling ways.

For starters, Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will all be remembered as the team that gave the Islamic republic a second lease on life just when it was more on the ropes than ever with its own people.

Because Trump and his national security team did no apparent scenario planning before the war — relying only on promises by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel that the Iranian regime would fall like a house of cards after a few weeks of heavy bombing — they failed to anticipate what Iran might do with its back against the wall.