Trump on foreign policy: Keep doing the same thing again and again expecting a different result

American warships in the Strait of Hormuz near Iran, 2016. By Official U.S. Navy Page from United States of AmericaMass Communicatin Specialist 3rd/U.S. Navy Photo — CVN 69 transits the Strait of Hormuz, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50322464

How wars start: one step at a time

There is a famous saying attributed to Albert Einstein that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

In reality, it appears that this statement originally appeared in an Narcotics Anonymous pamphlet, and it has become a staple saying of twelve-step program participants. The theory behind twelve step programs such as AA, NA or Alanon is that you need to change your behaviors because obviously, what you have been doing so far isn’t working for you.

Or, as Dr. Phil famously said, “how’s that working out for you?”

Unfortunately, our foreign policy under Trump, especially as it relates to Iran, appears to need an intervention. Calling Dr. Phil.

Iranian students invading the U.S. Embassy in Tehran as part of the Iranian Revolution in 1979. By Unknown — تصاویر تسخیر لانه جاسوسی — 100تصویر با شرح revolution.shirazu.ac.ir, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44763608

Sanctions were first imposed upon Iran in 1979 after students took over the American embassy in Tehran in response the United States’s protection of the hated Shah, who had just been overthrown in the Iranian Revolution. These sanctions were lifted as a result of…