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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Comment
Simon Tisdall

An ever-expanding catastrophe over Iran is not inevitable. Trump can and must be stopped

A placard against the Iran war at an event outside the US Capitol, Washington, 20 May 2026.
A placard against the Iran war at an event outside the US Capitol, Washington, 20 May 2026. Photograph: Gent Shkullaku/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

With the deadlocked war in Iran about to enter its fourth month, loose comparisons with previous US quagmires in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam are bandied about. When the conflict began, warnings of another “forever war” seemed exaggerated. No longer. As matters stand, the negative international humanitarian, economic and geopolitical fallout from this fiasco looks set to prove more permanently globally damaging than any of those past US-made disasters.

That being the case, an urgent question arises, not least today as reports suggest the US president and his secretary of war are planning to rain more bombs on Iran: who will stop Donald Trump?

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