German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in a rare moment torched US foreign policy and the Trump administration's Iran war gambit. There's been plenty of criticism out of Europe since Operation Epic Fury kicked off on February 28, but Merz's Monday words are especially direct and scathing.

He proclaimed that Iran's leadership wasembarrassing the US, claiming it was prompting US officials to travel to Pakistan and then return without achieving any outcome. "The Iranians are obviously very skilled ⁠at negotiating, or rather, very skillful at not negotiating, letting the Americans travel to Islamabad and then leave again without any result," he said.

The top German official made the remarks before students in the town of Marsberg. His sharpest attack came inthe following:"An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership, especially by these so-called Revolutionary Guards. And so I hope that this ends as quickly as possible."

Merz then claimed,"If I had known that it would continue like this for five or six weeks and get progressively worse, I would have told ​him even more emphatically." ​And yet the criticisms from EU leaders in the opening days were somewhat muted, meager, and weak.

The German leader furtherquestionedwhether the US had a clear exit strategy:

"The Iranians are clearly stronger than expected and the Americans clearly have no truly convincing strategy in the negotiations either,"Merz said during a school visit in Marsberg, a town in his home region of Sauerland.

"The problem with conflicts like this is always: you don't just have to get in, you have to get out again. We saw that very painfully in Afghanistan for 20 years. We saw it in Iraq."

Indeed a tiny handful of Republicans in Congress have made a similar argument, most especially Rep. Thomas Massie, in dissenting from the Iran war, especially given there's been no formal Congressional approval or war authorization.

Merz also commented on the potential blowback to Europe: "It is at the moment a pretty tangled situation," he said. "And it is costing us a great deal of money. This conflict, this war against Iran, hasa direct impact on our economic output."

Given the Trump admin's positions of late, Merz saying "An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership" certainly opens the door to withdrawing US troops from Germany.pic.twitter.com/2DmcB35Q24

Source: ZeroHedge News