One of the most encouraging and promising things President-elect Trump said in his post-election acceptance speech was, “I’m not going to start a war. I’m going to stop wars…” We all understand that campaign promises often have a short shelf life after the election is over, but the Trump campaign’s repeated talk of peace over war at least demonstrates that he finds it a winning point to make to American voters.
Will that talk of peace turn into action in the second Trump presidency, especially with the hawks he has named to senior foreign policy positions in his incoming Administration? It is hard to say, but last week’s report that he sent Elon Musk to meet with the Iranian Ambassador to the UN would be a good sign if true. Iran has denied that any such meeting took place, and with rumors swirling of Trump talks with Putin and other world leaders it may just be a media creation.
But even if it is not true that Trump sent Musk to meet with the Iranians it would be a good idea to do so. Why Musk? Because Musk is not expected to take on a formal role in the incoming Trump Administration he can be seen as an informal advisor and friend of the President-elect. Plus, as a businessman Elon Musk speaks a different language than government diplomats.
Why meet with the Iranians? What’s there to talk about? One important topic to bring up would be claims made by Biden’s FBI that there was an Iranian plot to assassinate then-candidate Trump. As many commentators including former CIA analyst Larry Johnson have asserted, the plot as outlined in the FBI indictment seems improbable. Is it possible that deep state hawks cooked up this alleged plot to guarantee that once taking office President Trump would not be tempted to open to Iran? There is a history of terror plots cooked up by the FBI so, sadly, this cannot be discounted.
Does that mean that Iranian denials should be trusted? Of course not. But it is worth discussing.
It is widely expected that in his second term President Trump will return to the “maximum pressure” policy of his first Administration. That would be a mistake. Trump will not be stepping into the same world when he steps back into the White House. More than ever, the proxy war in Ukraine has demonstrated the futility of sanctions and pressure as a tool of foreign policy. The countries under US sanctions have increasingly joined together and formed their own pathways to trade and diplomacy without the US.
In other words, we did not isolate Russia, China, and Iran with our sanctions upon sanctions. We isolated ourselves. We are seeing this clearly with the emergence of organizations such as BRICS.
A more prosperous America requires more foreign trade, not less. Frédéric Bastiat is quoted as saying, “When goods don’t cross borders, soldiers will.” We have already seen too much of that lately. Someone wrote recently that if only Nixon could go to China, perhaps only Trump can go to Iran. Making peace with Iran would be an achievement that would reverberate across the Middle East and beyond. It would even benefit Israel to have the current near state of war with Iran turned down. War destroys, peace builds. Let’s hope for a new approach.
