Chewing gum

Oct 17, 2026 Editorial, News

(Kaieteur News) – The first US objective was to batter Iran into submission. A rain of bombs from the skies, a groundswell of internal resistance from the streets of Teheran, and it would be just a matter of mopping up operations, all over. The Iranians have not played along, and what was projected to last a few weeks only has now extended to months. Instead of chewing gum, the US is now chewing on nails.

US involvement in the Middle East has not reached the state of a quagmire, but it is beginning to take the shape of one. Start out with bright hopes, expect the enemy to cave in, only for the opposite to occur. It is not Vietnam from over a half century ago, but it is not the successes of Desert Storm and Desert Shield. Not by the reports coming out of the ground. The Middle East has always been a place of old feuds, one with a tinderbox atmosphere, and where vengeance is a matter of honor. This is where the US entered with its technology and its allies, and now finds itself trapped, without the face-saving way of an honorable extrication available at this time.