After his death last month, a video surfaced of US Senator Lindsey Graham cheering the bombing of Iran and his own part in it. Other Republicans had advised President Donald Trump against the war. But Graham knew his golf partner “loves blowing stuff up”. The recording was apparently made in March.
In August, Iran still controls the Strait of Hormuz. The US has lost face and Patriot missiles. Households have lost purchasing power as oil prices have risen. Even if the war had worked, a senator in his eighth decade might be expected to greet the use of lethal force with some regret and decorum.
Still, European liberals cannot recoil too much. Graham’s belligerence often came in useful. He was a friend of Ukraine in Washington. He was vigilant to the threat from Vladimir Putin when Germany was still building a gas pipeline to Russia and Mayfair was a recreational space for the Kremlin-connected rich. His last public act was a visit to Kyiv. A bill is going through Congress now that would grant extraordinary new tariff powers against Russia and its enablers. Graham introduced it. He was pro-Nato in a Republican movement that often wasn’t.