TACO – Trump Always Chickens Out

TACO – Trump Always Chickens Out-

by Okoi Obono-Obla

A Pattern of Retreat
Is Trump on the verge of chickening out of the debacle unleashed by the attack on Iran, which has sent the global economy spiraling and teetering on the brink of cataclysm? Trump chickened out of his tariff war agenda after the Supreme Court of the United States held that he had overstepped his constitutional boundaries by imposing tariffs as high as 100% against countries that did not catch his fancy. He also chickened out of his plan to use military muscle to annex Greenland. He has chickened out of many policy flip‑flops.

America’s History of Backtracking
The United States of America has always had a history and reputation for chickening out when its bravado backfires. We saw this in Vietnam, where it was dug in from the 1950s to the early 1970s, suffering heavy casualties in men and materials. We saw another policy backfiring in Afghanistan, after she spent a fortune fighting the tough and battle‑hardened Taliban until she was compelled to back down. We saw what happened in Iraq after Saddam Hussein was toppled under the hoax of him possessing weapons of mass destruction. We also saw how America’s prevarication led to one of the worst genocidal events in Africa, when Hutu militants slaughtered more than one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus in a matter of weeks.

Iran’s Looming Chaos
Now, I see Iran descending into chaos, which will lead to terror groups occupying the country and turning it into what we witnessed in Libya. That disintegration reverberated across the Sahelian region of West Africa, where terror groups occupied ungoverned spaces and used them as launching pads to foray into Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, and beyond. If these vicious terror groups spring up in a fragmented Iran and unleash their fury on the Gulf States, the world will surely reel and reverberate from the aftermath.

The Case for Multilateralism
The only way to salvage the debacle unfolding in the Middle East is for the world to return to multilateralism and international legalism—principles the United States has jettisoned in favor of unipolarism. That unipolar approach is turning the world upside down and dragging it back to the Hobbesian stage, where the strongest, most powerful, and most influential ride roughshod over the vulnerable, the weak, and the powerless.

Conclusion:
Unless the international community recommits to collective responsibility, lawful cooperation, and respect for multilateral institutions, the cycle of chaos and retreat will continue. The lesson of history is clear: unilateral bravado breeds instability, but multilateralism offers the only path to sustainable peace and global security.