WASHINGTON — Iran is wearing down the American public to defeat the US politically — attempting to copy North Vietnam’s playbook against President Trump, according to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
And electing Democrats to Congress in November will play right into their hands, he told John Catsimatidis on his “Cats Roundtable” radio show Sunday.
Gingrich theorized that Tehran is banking on Democrats roaring back to power and opening a bevy of investigations into Trump that will keep him distracted from achieving his military objectives.
“The North Vietnamese knew they could never defeat us militarily, but they could defeat us politically,” Gingrich
“Their whole effort was designed to get the American news media to turn against the war, and then to have the American political system break and conclude that it couldn’t sustain [the war],” he added.
“The Iranians have a strategy very much like the North Vietnamese communists. Their goal is to survive, to not give in to anything basic.”
Polls have shown that the war in Iran is unpopular, but Trump has conducted it through an air campaign rather than a full-blown invasion like the Vietnam War, which had tens of thousands of American casualties and triggered intense anti-war protests at home.
Gingrich stressed that, like North Vietnam, Iran is “focusing on trying to win in America politically what they can’t possibly win militarily.”
Trump has long declared that his chief objective of the war in Iran is to ensure that the Islamist regime does not obtain a nuclear weapon.
In response to the war, Iran has wreaked havoc in the Strait of Hormuz, where nearly a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil supplies once flowed annually, causing gas prices to spike heading into the midterm elections.
Concerns about the supplies of munitions needed to both carry out additional strikes on Iran and defend from the regime’s attacks on US assets in the regime have reportedly loomed large over his decision to hold off on resuming a major offensive against Tehran.
Meanwhile, Trump has kept up the pressure on Iran through a naval blockade and an ever-tightening sanctions regime that have led to soaring inflation and severe economic pain.
Trump has claimed that his team is “semi-negotiating” with Iran as the Pentagon scrambles to ramp up production of critical air defense and cruise missiles.
“After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated — pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,” Trump crowed during a rally for Republicans on Long Island last week.
The president also claimed that temporary higher costs at the gas pump are worth it to ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon.
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