Bloomberg Surveillance · Tuesday, August 11, 2026
Exiting the current 'war of choice' requires genuine diplomacy, including making politically unpalatable concessions. The analogy to early 1916 is drawn, suggesting a potential for escalation and expansion of the conflict geographically if not addressed.
“I think it comes down to finding ways to actually talk, finding ways to talk and have true diplomacy, and that means making concessions, and some of those might not be the most politically palatable, but ultimately you call it a march of folly, I call it a war of choice, and I think that's where we are.”
“And in order to get out of a war of choice, we need to make some of those hard choices. And I think, unfortunately, that's where the President finds himself, and frankly, that's where Iron is also going to find itself as it continues to feel some of its own economic hardship from within, with a domestic economy that desperately needs to rebuild, as well as continued sure but I also think that your nineteen sixteen analogy is incredibly right if we wanted to swing in the other direction, which is more war.”
“And again, what is one of the themes of protracted conflicts. It's that they almost always expand geographically, and that's how we can find ourselves potentially finding new areas, new parties, and this turning into what might look like a modern world war.”