What Trump's Reflecting Pool renovation project and the Iran war have in common

[00:00:00]There are times when two unrelated things tell or strongly suggest one unified story.

[00:00:07]The reflecting pool in Washington and the US war with Iran have nothing to do with one another, but both have similarities worth reflecting upon.

[00:00:18]Did the reflecting pool need an overhaul? Did the US and Israel need to attack Iran in late February?

[00:00:26]The reflecting pool was in no obvious distress. US intelligence shows Iran did not have a nuclear weapon and international monitors and experts said it had not seriously resumed efforts to build one after US and Israeli strikes severely damaged key nuclear facilities last summer.

[00:00:44]There was no urgency then to launch either project. Both were President Trump's initiative, his choice.

[00:00:52]Did President Trump over promise on the reflecting pool and the war with Iran?

[00:00:56]The simple answer to both is yes.

[00:01:00]Trump promised an algae-free, miraculously clean, inexpensive, and American flag blue reflecting pool redo.

[00:01:08]What he and the country now have is an algae-clumped mess, greenish and cluttered with workers vacuuming bio-slime and generators pumping furiously to fight the microbes. Oh, yes, and two no-bid contracts much more expensive than the original cost projections.

[00:01:26]Beneath the algae, the blue sealer coat is already in some parts detaching.

[00:01:32]Experts on Reddit, and yes, I did kind of a Reddit rabbit hole on this, say the cause is almost certainly poor prep work and a rushed refilling of the pool.

[00:01:43]When the war began with Iran, Trump said the goal was Iran's surrender. He told Iranians under the bloody thumb of its theocratic regime that, quote, "Help is on the way."

[00:01:53]Iran has not surrendered. No US help ever came for Iranian civilians. Talk to end Iran's pursuit of a nuclear weapon are now so tenuous the talks to start those talks scheduled to begin today in Switzerland have been postponed.

[00:02:08]This is not a commentary on intentions or capabilities.

[00:02:12]The intentions may have been valid. The capabilities may certainly have been sufficient. It's about decision made once things were set in motion and when problems arose.

[00:02:24]Trump rushed to reflect in pool redo in his image to be ready for the 200th anniversary of America.

[00:02:29]A celebration he has made abundantly clear must be in his image and on his terms.

[00:02:35]Now there is scurrying to fix what's gone wrong.

[00:02:39]The war with Iran was launched to drive a perceived weak Iran over the cliff and remake the entire region possibly with Iran's death to America and death to Israel cadre of leaders gone for good.

[00:02:52]But Iran remains at the leadership level as it was. Weakened militarily, yes, but still there.

[00:03:00]Now Trump says he sees no limits on his power and Israel must do as he says.

[00:03:06]Lots of promises. Lots of boasting.

[00:03:10]But we are left with a reflecting pool and a region riven still by familiar, predictable problems at the surface and much deeper.

[00:03:20]One of the biggest problems with the Iran war, Lebanon. And Israel and Hezbollah continued fighting. This poses a genuine threat not just to the ceasefire but interestingly to the state of US and Israeli relations which suddenly look as murky as the reflecting pool here in Washington. For more on Lebanon, we turn to MTS Tyab in Tel Aviv. MTS, take it away.

[00:03:47]>> Well Major, I got to say you had me gripped at your monologue there. I I the parallels that you're drawing and it really begs the question as to what we're seeing here in Lebanon. It is, in short, and this is not a scientific term, but a mess. Um, and some would have argued a very predictable mess.

[00:04:01]Now, what we have right now in Lebanon is this ceasefire. It came out of nowhere. I'll be honest with you, when it was announced, we were all caught off guard by it. If anything, we thought the fighting in southern Lebanon was only going to intensify far more than what we saw overnight when Israel targeted 150 separate sites in southern Lebanon. We understand that 18 people were killed in Lebanon, according to the Ministry of Health there, and we also understand that four Israeli soldiers were killed.

[00:04:27]We had a statement from the Israeli Prime Minister saying that the fighting would continue, and now we have this ceasefire. How did the ceasefire come into place? Well, I think we only have to look at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and the president himself, no doubt, putting a lot of pressure on Israel. We've had those extraordinary statements, not just from him, but also from the Vice President J.D. Vance, criticizing Israel in ways that we very rarely ever hear from the US president. And so, now we have this ceasefire, but it is a very brutal one.

[00:04:56]Major.

[00:04:57]>> MTS, I want to have our control room bring up a graphic that sort of summarizes what's happened in Lebanon and what Iran requires that it says it must have a ceasefire or talks with the US won't continue. But, I want to bring the audience's attention to these numbers you see.

[00:05:12]Inside Lebanon, 3,912 people killed since March 2nd. Inside Israel, 32 soldiers, four civilians killed. Death on both sides, but the numbers speak to much more death inside Lebanon. Not only that, but this so-called security perimeter that Israel wants to exact inside southern Lebanon has been growing, has it not?

[00:05:38]>> Oh, it has. In fact, Israel just tonight releasing a number of maps pointing out to what it describes as this buffer zone. Now, to give you a sense of it, if we're looking at it, it is about 6.2 miles wide, which stretches north from its internationally recognized border with Lebanon deep into Lebanese territory as far as the city of Nabatieh. Nabatieh is probably the largest city in southern Lebanon. It is the commercial hub there, and many people also see it as a Hezbollah stronghold. And really, this has been a place of conflict going back all the way to 1978. We've seen round and round of violence there. Now, this ceasefire is in place, but what does it actually look like? It looks like Israeli soldiers still on the ground inside Lebanon. Now, for Hezbollah, that is a red line. For the Iranians, that appears to be something that they will tolerate in order to get to these negotiations, which while the clock is ticking, it hasn't actually started yet. And that is the big question here. Will these talks actually begin to handle the far more thornier issues like Iran's nuclear program and many other issues. Major.

[00:06:46]>> MTS Ty, great stuff as always. I appreciate it. Thank you.