Trump’s Iranian Wild West adventure could end in nuclear disaster

There is a real fear that the embattled, unpredictable US President may attempt to take the nuclear option to extricate himself from a mess of his own making

The American Wild West, brings to mind of jeans clad cowboys shooting from the hip and gun-toting white Americans on horseback hunting down Native Americans armed with bows and arrows. It paints pictures of horse-drawn wagons filled with white colonists heading west to violently capture/takeover so-called ‘uninhabited lands’ traditionally owned by native populations.  

One is put in mind of the setting up of border towns where violent gunfights decided who or what was wrong or right; where justice flowed from the barrel of gun held by whitemen. Where defence of their rights by the ‘natives’ were looked on as terrorism and justified the elimination of entire tribes of American Indians. 

Even today the battles of the US Army against Native Americans and the herding of entire tribes into reservation lands is glamourised and glorified. 

Today as the world watches the antics of US President Trump in his war with Iran, it appears we are witnessing an attempted replay of the disenfranchisement, and land and resource grab of native Americans in what is referred to as the days of the US Wild West.

Last month the US President Trump had the President of Venezuela (Maduro) kidnapped and forcibly holds him captive in a US prison.  The charges appear to be trumped up, as the self-same US President in January 2025 pardoned Ross Ulbricht convicted for illegal drug trafficking. Ulbricht was serving a life sentence without parole in a US prison before the pardon.  

President Maduro on the other hand, was an outspoken opponent of the US which had sanctioned the sale of Venezuelan oil. Venezuela was also selling its oil to Cuba, China and a host of other countries in currencies other than the US Dollar. Presently the White House controls Venezuela’s crude in global markets. “We need to have that leverage and control of those oil sales to drive the changes that simply must happen in Venezuela,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said.  

On February 28 the US along with its partner-in-war Israel, carried out a sneak attack on Iran. This despite negotiations between the US and Iran were in progress in Oman. The attack targeted civilian centres in Iran’s capital Tehran and included a targeted US strike on a girls’ school, the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, near Bandar Abbas. The attack killed at least 170 people, including around 110-168 children and several teachers.  

At the commencement of hostilities the US President predicted the war would end in a matter of days. Instead Iran has retaliated by attacking Israel, all US bases in West Asia (Middle East) and closing the Straits of Hormuz resulting in a huge international shortage of petroleum–based products in the world market including petroleum-based agricultural inputs which will soon create a shortage in the food chain worldwide hitting economic activities a blow to the solar plexus.

In addition the ongoing war is also costing the US billions of dollars on a daily basis, bankrupting its own economy, eating at the President’s popularity and leading to protests across the US. The US President now needs to find means to bring the war to an end without losing face. He floated a story that Iran was making moves to commence negotiations.

Iran however denied the President’s statement. Instead it has forward three demands the US must fulfill to bring the war to an end. 

The costs of the Iran war are escalating and the US economy is bleeding. The estimated the US-Iran conflict according to ‘Time’ Magazine cost the US over $11.3 billion in its first six days averaging roughly $1.5-2 billion per day. PBS News reports oil prices surged, pushing gasoline up 0.8% in February alone and prompting analysts to forecast a potential rise in overall inflation toward 3.5% in the summer.

With mid-term election in the US around the corner Trump and his Republican Party need a victory if they are to retain their hold over Congress and the Senate. There is a real fear that the embattled, unpredictable US President may attempt to take the nuclear option to extricate himself from a mess of his own making.