Trump takes 'controversial path' mirroring failings of George W. Bush: analyst

Donald Trump and his administration are taking the controversial path when it comes to world politics, a political commentator has warned.

The president's rhetoric around Iran and the wiping out of its nuclear capabilities has been roundly criticized, but, according to CNN analyst Stephen Collinson, this will not stop Trump's team from pushing through with potential action against the Middle East. Collinson has since warned that the rhetoric from Trump and his cabinet is eerily similar to that of George W. Bush and his team's talk ahead of the invasion of Iraq.

Collinson wrote, "But historic echoes were loudest when he turned to Iran’s ballistic missiles. 'They’ve already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America,' Trump said.

"He may be overstating Iran’s capabilities. But by invoking threats to the homeland, he followed a controversial path taken by the Bush administration and British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government to justify the Iraq War.

"Missile fearmongering is not the only reason for Iraq War nostalgia. One of the Bush administration’s worst failings was its blasé negligence in planning for the aftermath of a war that led to sectarian splintering and an insurgency."

Trump has yet to detail the plans for Iran any further, not least with the American people, which Collinson believes is another major error from the cabinet ahead of what could be a massive shift in world politics.

"Iran is arguably a more robust state than Iraq," Collinson wrote. "But Trump is yet to level with Americans about what might happen if any US military action topples the Iranian clerical regime.

"The Trump administration has history on regime change after toppling Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro earlier this year. But the chances seem remote that it could find an Iranian equivalent of acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez to coerce into acting on Washington’s interests.

"US foreign policy has often floundered over failed calculations about how adversaries will behave. The logic of Washington often dissolves on contact with hot and dusty Middle Eastern air.

"The current administration seems beset by similar misunderstandings, despite Trump’s warning in Saudi Arabia last year that Iraq War-era 'interventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves.'"