India, April 2 -- Donald Trump's much-anticipated address from the White House early on Thursday (India time) was, in the end, a speech delivered by an American President on the backfoot. He did not declare an end to the Iran war - not that such a declaration by Trump would have ended the war. He also did not, to the relief of the Europeans, announce an exit from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato). The speech, instead, was an exercise in trying to provide reassurance - to jittery financial markets, an American public uneasy with the war, rattled global energy markets, uneasy allies, and Gulf States unhappy about being dragged into a war that is not theirs. However, Trump's attempt was, by any measure, futile.

Thirty-three days...