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by Sam Sifton
March 17, 2026
from
NYTimes Website
Article also
HERE and
HERE
Doug Mills
The New York
Times
We
explain why America's allies
aren't
coming to the rescue
in the
Strait of Hormuz...
Trump is frustrated with countries that have declined his call to
"come and help us" reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
He mocked them yesterday:
"We would rather not get involved, sir",
...Trump said, imitating what he says he hears
from world leaders - even though, he points out, Europe, Japan and
others depend on oil from the Persian Gulf far more than the United
States does.
But Europe, in particular, has no great wish to be drawn into
America's conflict.
It's not those countries' fault that Iran closed
this vital maritime artery, driving up prices for cargo and oil
worldwide.
Sources:
Flanders Marine
Institute,
International
Maritime Organization, GEBCO.
Credit: Samuel
Granados and Agnes Chang
The New York
Times
"This is not our war; we did not start it," Boris Pistorius,
Germany's defense minister, said yesterday, calling for a
diplomatic solution instead.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain
said that his country,
"will not be drawn into the wider war" with
Iran.
The French foreign ministry said much the same.
And the Polish foreign minister said that his nation had also "ruled
out" sending forces into the conflict.
They're caught in a bind, Michael Shear
reports:
Do nothing as prices surge and voters
struggle to make ends meet - or join the fight and invite
retaliation from Iran and its proxies.
At the White House, Trump said the obstinacy of
U.S. allies was exactly why he sneered at protecting other
countries.
"If we ever needed help," he observed
angrily, "they won't be there for us."
The Anger Presidency
That tracks. Operation Epic Fury is accurate branding for the
war, Peter Baker writes.
By the president's own description, everything he
does is "epic":
the most, the biggest, the best...
And Trump is certainly driven by fury.
Anger is
at the heart of much of his work. He chose the name himself.
Here's one (epic) paragraph of Peter's analysis:
Anger defines Mr. Trump's decade on the
political stage.
Anger at foreigners who come to this country
and change its nature.
Anger at allies who take advantage of
America.
Anger at Democrats who cross him.
Anger at Republicans
who cross him.
Anger at appointees he deems insufficiently
loyal.
Anger at prosecutors, F.B.I. agents, judges,
journalists, law firms, elite universities, cultural figures,
corporate leaders, pollsters, central bankers and the Norwegian
Nobel Committee.
Read the rest
here...
A Lack of Clarity
In Tehran on Sunday.
Credit: Arash
Khamooshi
for The New York Times
It's easy to understand why the war has begun to
grate on the president.
Trump and his cabinet still have not been able to
articulate the administration's objectives, much less when the war
might end,
writes Zolan Kanno-Youngs.
We've already "won" the war, Trump has said. But the United States
should not leave until it finishes the "excursion," as he's called
it.
And he doesn't need allies for that.
"We don't need anybody," Trump said
yesterday, even as he called for other nations to help take up
the task of securing the Strait of Hormuz.
He's hopping mad.
"The lack of discipline and the lack of
clarity strongly suggest that the administration was simply
unprepared for the messaging aspects of this conflict," one
historian told Zolan.
"The likelihood is that the demands are
ambiguous because the administration does not know what its
goals are beyond winning."
And you can see how that's playing out in public
opinion, with most polls showing less than half of Americans
supporting the war.
Zolan reminded me that when President George
W. Bush sent troops to Afghanistan in 2001, 92 percent of
Americans approved.
Even some of Trump's more influential supporters are slipping.
"He ran on no more wars; end these stupid,
senseless wars," the podcast host Joe Rogan said.
"And then we have one that we can't even
really clearly define why we did it."
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