On Feb. 18, as President Trump weighed whether to launch military attacks on Iran, Chris Wright, the energy secretary, told an interviewer he was not concerned that the looming war might disrupt oil supplies in the Middle East and wreak havoc in energy markets.

2月18日，就在特朗普总统权衡是否对伊朗发动军事打击时，能源部长克里斯·赖特在接受采访时表示，他并不担心迫在眉睫的战争会扰乱中东的石油供应并对能源市场造成破坏。

Even during the Israeli and U.S. strikes against Iran last June, Mr. Wright said, there had been little disruption in the markets. “Oil prices blipped up and then went back down,” he said. Some of Mr. Trump’s other advisers shared similar views in private, dismissing warnings that — the second time around — Iran might wage economic warfare by closing shipping lanes carrying roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil supply.

赖特表示，即使在去年6月以色列和美国对伊朗进行打击期间，市场也几乎没有受到干扰。他说：“油价只是有小幅跳升，然后就回落了。”特朗普的其他一些顾问在私下里也持有类似观点，他们对相关警告不屑一顾——这些警告称，在第二次冲突中，伊朗可能会通过关闭承载全球约20%石油供应的航道来发动经济战。

The extent of that miscalculation was laid bare in recent days, as Iran threatened to fire at commercial oil tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic choke point through which all ships must pass on their way out of the Persian Gulf. In response to the Iranian threats, commercial shipping has come to a standstill in the Gulf, oil prices have spiked, and the Trump administration has scrambled to find ways to tamp down an economic crisis that has triggered higher gasoline prices for Americans.

这种误判的严重程度在近日暴露无遗。随着伊朗威胁要向通过霍尔木兹海峡的商业油轮开火（霍尔木兹海峡是所有船只进出波斯湾必须经过的战略咽喉），海湾地区的商业航运应声陷入停滞，油价飙升，特朗普政府正焦头烂额地寻找方法，以平息这场已导致美国汽油价格上涨的经济危机。

The episode is emblematic of how much Mr. Trump and his advisers misjudged how Iran would respond to a conflict that the government in Tehran sees as an existential threat. Iran has responded far more aggressively than it did during last June’s 12-day war, firing barrages of missiles and drones at U.S. military bases, cities in Arab nations across the Middle East, and on Israeli population centers.

这一事件典型地反映了特朗普及其顾问如何严重低估了伊朗对这场冲突的反应，德黑兰政府将其视为生存威胁。伊朗的反应远比去年6月那场为期12天的战争要激烈得多，他们向美国军事基地、中东各地的阿拉伯城市以及以色列的人口中心发射了大量导弹和无人机。

U.S. officials have had to adjust plans on the fly, from hastily ordering the evacuation of embassies to developing policy proposals to reduce gas prices.

美国官员不得不临时调整计划，从紧急下令撤离大使馆，到制定降低油价的政策建议。

After Trump administration officials gave a closed-door briefing to lawmakers on Tuesday, Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, said on social media that the administration had no plan for the Strait of Hormuz and did “not know how to get it safely back open.”

在特朗普政府官员周二向立法者进行闭门简报后，康涅狄格州民主党参议员克里斯托弗·S·墨菲在社交媒体上表示，政府对霍尔木兹海峡没有计划，且“不知道如何安全地恢复通航”。

Inside the administration, some officials are growing pessimistic about the lack of a clear strategy to finish the war. But they have been careful not to express that directly to the president, who has repeatedly declared that the military operation is a complete success.

在政府内部，一些官员对于缺乏明确的结束战争的战略越来越感到悲观。但他们一直小心翼翼，不敢直接向总统表达这一点，因为总统反复宣称这次军事行动取得了圆满成功。

Mr. Trump has laid out maximalist goals like insisting that Iran name a leader who will submit to him, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have described narrower and more tactical objectives that could provide an off-ramp in the near term.

特朗普提出了一些宏大的目标，比如坚持要求伊朗任命一位顺从他的领导人；而国务卿马可·鲁比奥和国防部长皮特·海格塞斯则描述了更狭窄、更具战术性的目标，这可能在短期内提供一个“退坡”机制。

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said the administration “had a strong game plan” before the war broke out, and vowed that oil prices would drop after it ended.

白宫新闻发言人卡罗琳·莱维特表示，政府在战争爆发前制定了一个“强大的作战方案”，并誓言油价将在战争结束后下跌。

“The purposeful disruption in the oil market by the Iranian regime is short term, and necessary for the long-term gain of wiping out these terrorists and the threat they pose to America and the world,” she said in a statement.

她在一份声明中说：“伊朗政权蓄意扰乱石油市场是短期的，对于消除这些恐怖分子及其对美国和世界构成的威胁这一长期利益来说，这是必要的。”

This article is based on interviews with a dozen U.S. officials, who asked for anonymity to discuss private conversations.

本文基于对十几名美国官员的采访，由于涉及私下对话，他们要求匿名。

白宫新闻发言人卡罗琳·莱维特表示，在战争爆发前，政府就已制定了“强大的作战方案”。

‘Show Some Guts’

“拿出点胆量来”

Mr. Hegseth acknowledged on Tuesday that Iran’s ferocious response against its neighbors caught the Pentagon somewhat off guard. But he insisted that Iran’s actions were backfiring.

海格塞斯周二承认，伊朗对其邻国的凶猛反应令五角大楼有些措手不及。但他坚称，其行为的效果适得其反。

“I can’t say that we anticipated necessarily that’s exactly how they would react, but we knew it was a possibility,” Mr. Hegseth said at a Pentagon news conference. “I think it was a demonstration of the desperation of the regime.”

“我不能说我们预料到了他们一定会做出这种反应，但我们知道有这种可能性，”海格塞斯在五角大楼的新闻发布会上说。“我认为这反映了该政权的绝望。”

Mr. Trump has displayed growing frustration over how the war is disrupting the oil supply, telling Fox News that oil tanker crews should “show some guts” and sail through the Strait of Hormuz.

特朗普日益表现出对战争扰乱石油供应的不满，他在接受福克斯新闻采访时表示，油轮船员应该“拿出点胆量来”，驶过霍尔木兹海峡。

Some military advisers did warn before the war that Iran could launch an aggressive campaign in response, and would view the U.S.-Israeli attack as a threat to its existence. But other advisers remained confident that killing Iran’s senior leadership would lead to more pragmatic leaders taking over who might bring an end to the war.

一些军事顾问在战前确实警告过，伊朗可能会发起剧烈的反击，并将美以的攻击视为对其生存的威胁。但其他顾问仍然信心十足，认为除掉伊朗的高层领导将导致更务实的领导人接权，从而可能结束战争。

When Mr. Trump was briefed about risks that oil prices could rise in the event of war, he acknowledged the possibility but downplayed it as a short-term concern that should not overshadow the mission to decapitate the Iranian regime. He directed Mr. Wright and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to work on developing options for a potential spike in prices.

当特朗普听取关于战争可能导致油价上涨的风险简报时，他承认了这种可能性，但将其淡化为短期担忧，不应因此盖过“斩首”伊朗政权任务的成功。他指示赖特和财政部长斯科特·贝森特针对潜在的价格飙升制定对策。

But the president did not speak publicly about these options — including political risk insurance backed by the U.S. government, and the potential of U.S. Navy escorts — until more than 48 hours after the conflict started. The escorts have not yet taken place.

但直到冲突爆发48小时后，总统才公开谈论这些选项——包括由美国政府支持的政治风险保险，以及美国海军护航的可能性。目前护航行动尚未实施。

As the conflict has roiled global markets, Republicans in Washington have grown concerned about rising oil prices damaging their efforts to sell an economic agenda to voters ahead of the midterm elections.

随着冲突扰乱全球市场，华盛顿的共和党人越来越担心油价上涨会损害他们在国会中期选举前向选民推销经济议程的努力。

Mr. Trump, both publicly and privately, has been arguing that Venezuelan oil could help solve any shocks coming from the Iran war. The administration announced on Tuesday a new refinery in Texas that officials said could help increase oil supply, ensuring that Iran does not cause any long-term damage to oil markets.

特朗普在公开和私下场合都一直在争辩说，委内瑞拉的石油可以帮助缓解伊朗战争带来的任何冲击。政府周二宣布在得克萨斯州建立一家新炼油厂，官员们表示这有助于增加石油供应，确保伊朗不会对石油市场造成任何长期损害。

A Potential Off-Ramp

潜在的退坡机制

Mr. Trump has said both that the war could go on for more than a month and that it was “very complete, pretty much.” He also said the United States would “go forward more determined than ever.”

特朗普既说过战争可能会持续一个月以上，又说过战争已经“非常彻底，基本上是这样”。他还表示美国将“比以往任何时候都更加坚定地前进”。

Mr. Rubio and Mr. Hegseth, however, appear to have coordinated their messaging for now on three discrete goals that they began laying out in public remarks on Monday and Tuesday.

然而，鲁比奥和海格塞斯目前的口径似乎达成了一致，集中在他们在周一和周二的公开讲话中开始列出的三个具体目标上。

“The goals of this mission are clear,” Mr. Rubio said at a State Department event on Monday before Mr. Trump held his own news conference. “It is to destroy the ability of this regime to launch missiles, both by destroying their missiles and their launchers; destroy the factories that make these missiles; and destroy their navy.”

“这次任务的目标很明确，”鲁比奥周一在特朗普举行自己的新闻发布会之前，在国务院的一次活动中说。“那就是摧毁该政权发射导弹的能力，包括摧毁他们的导弹和发射器；摧毁制造这些导弹的工厂；并摧毁他们的海军。”

The State Department even laid out the three goals in bullet-point fashion, and highlighted a video clip of Mr. Rubio stating them on an official social media account.

国务院甚至以项目符号列表形式列出了这三个目标，并在官方社交媒体账号上重点展示了鲁比奥阐述这些目标的视频片段。

特朗普曾既表示过这场战争可能会持续一个月以上，又表示过战争已经“非常彻底，基本上是这样”。

The presentation by Mr. Rubio, who is also the White House national security adviser, appeared to be setting the stage for the president to bring an end to the war sooner rather than later. In his news conference, Mr. Trump boasted of how the U.S. military had already destroyed Iran’s ballistic missile capability and its navy. But he also warned of even more aggressive action if Iranian leaders tried to cut off the world’s energy supply.

同时也是白宫国家安全顾问的鲁比奥做出的这番表述似乎是在为总统尽早结束战争铺路。在新闻发布会上，特朗普夸耀美国军方已经摧毁了伊朗的弹道导弹能力和海军。但他也警告说，如果伊朗领导人试图切断世界的能源供应，美方将采取更激烈的行动。

Matthew Pottinger, who was a deputy national security adviser in the first Trump administration, said in an interview that Mr. Trump had indicated he could decide to pursue ambitious war goals that would take weeks at least.

第一届特朗普政府的副国家安全顾问博明(Matthew Pottinger)在接受采访时表示，从特朗普的言论来看，他可能会决定追求需要至少数周时间才能实现的宏大战争目标。

“In his press conference, I could hear him circling back to a rationale for fighting a bit longer given that the regime is still signaling it won’t be deterred and is still trying to control the Strait of Hormuz,” said Mr. Pottinger, now the chair of the China program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a group that advocates a close U.S. partnership with Israel and confrontation with Iran.

“在他的新闻发布会上，我能听出他正绕回到‘多打一段时间’的论证上，因为该政权仍在发出不会被慑服的信号，并仍试图控制霍尔木兹海峡，”博明说道。他目前是保卫民主基金会(FDD)中国项目的负责人，该组织主张美国与以色列建立紧密的伙伴关系并对抗伊朗。

“He doesn’t want to have to fight a ‘sequel’ war,” Mr. Pottinger added.

“他不希望到时候又要打一场‘续集’战争，”博明补充道。