Today he disappointed them again. Just as he did in Syria and North Korea. Once again, President Trump rattled his saber as a negotiating tool.
Sherman, set the Wayback Machine to last week, when NBC reported, "National security adviser John Bolton has reportedly requested that administration officials draw up plans to send 120,000 U.S. troops to the Middle East to counter Iran, sending shockwaves through Washington. Bolton, a key architect of the disastrous invasion of Iraq, has long gunned for war with Iran and seems intent on escalating tensions regardless of Tehran’s policies.
"At first glance, the plans — a deployment on a scale with the force sent to Kuwait prior to the war in Iraq — suggest that Iran’s decision to respond to Donald Trump’s violations of the Iran deal by restarting elements of its nuclear program has backfired spectacularly.
"But there is a different interpretation of what has happened. Rather than Iran walking into Bolton’s trap, it is Bolton who is walking into Iran’s trap. Iran is not being deterred by Bolton’s theatrics and threats of war, because Bolton is actually playing the exact role Tehran expected — and wanted — him to play."
Wow.
President Trump was about to send 120,000 troops into Iran just to placate John Bolton's moustache.
But NBC had more bad news. There was nothing Congress could do to stop him.
NBC News reported, "WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump may not need Congress to go to war with Iran.
"That's the case his lieutenants have been quietly building as tensions between the two nations have escalated.
"The key elements involve drawing links between al Qaeda and Iran and casting Iran as a terrorist threat to the U.S. — which is exactly what administration officials have been doing in recent weeks.
"That could give Trump the justification he needs to fight Iran without congressional approval under the still-in-effect 2001 use-of-force resolution."
Wow.
The Orange Man wanted war, didn't he?
The magazines weighed in.
New Yorker said, "The United States has a long history of provoking, instigating, or launching wars based on dubious, flimsy, or manufactured threats."
Yes, I remember when we bombed Pearl Harbor.
Oh wait.
That was Japan.
The Rolling Stone said, "The Trump Administration Is Thirsty for War, Intelligence Be Damned. The United States is goading Iran into taking action so it can justify an invasion."
Why he could wind up bombing Libya, creating chaos, and sending thousands of refugees to overrun Italy.
Oh wait.
That was Hillary.
Today, Reuters reported, "Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said on Tuesday that while threats from Iran in the Middle East remained high, deterrence measures taken by the Pentagon had put on hold the potential for attacks on Americans."
That darned wimpy Donald Trump.
We have been so disgraced that Bolton may as well shave off his moustache.
***
You would think by now that the media would understand President Trump's negotiating methods.
They don't want to understand President Trump, they want to embarrass, harangue, and impeach him.
ReplyDeleteThis is a point on which the analysis both on the right and left fall into confusion. Trump has the neocon warmongers in his cabinet for two reasons. This puts makes foreign interests take threats seriously, and it mollifies the neocons still in power at various levels of government, while satisfying the old adage that you want to keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.
ReplyDeleteThus it makes perfect sense, and in fact makes it much easier, for Trump to have a cabinet full of war hawks while carrying out a policy that avoids military conflict in a big way.
Should Iran or one of it's minions launch an attack on US interests in the Middle East watch the Left and it's media outlets take the side of Iran against the US because "Orange Man Bad".
ReplyDeleteTalk softly and have a cabinet of big sticks. Or, something like that.
ReplyDeleteTrump said on tv last week that the military won't let him pull the troops out of Syria.
ReplyDeleteFinally the truth comes out about who really is in charge in DC and it ain't the President. Its the CFR who dictates foreign policy and if a President doesn't line up with them he gets relentlessly attacked the operation mockingbird media.
Actuall it may be real Tactical need. ISIS is gone but the IRG/Hezbollah
Deleteaxis is still around. chess moves.
Yet the media still doesn't talk about the high level Iranian intelligence officer who defected with documents in mid April. https://lidblog.com/intelligence-u-s-leave-iraq/ Could that be why we ramped up our defenses.
ReplyDeleteActually that may be good thing the NYT/WAPO,etc. are really good at betraying our Troops.
Delete"The Germans Bombed Pearl Harbor..." Future Senator BLutarsky. It figures, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteIronically, the Democrats and news media (but I repeat myself) constantly screaming that Trump is a warmonger and is really really serious about creating war to satisfy Trump's thirst for blood actually helps Trump the negotiator. If Iran sees that even their allies in the Democratic and new media (again, sorry for the redundancy) are telling them Trump wants to go to war, then Iran has to be concerned that Obama's gone and there's a new sheriff in D.C. town.
ReplyDelete-TK
To me it seems like Trump is embracing the same bloodthirsty NeoCons he excoriated during his candidacy. But if Trump is playing Five Dimensional Chess to keep us out of yet another war. Kudos to him. Of course Trump will have to contend his son-in-law Jared Kushner, since Kushner wants us to go to war with Iran as well.
ReplyDeleteReally? How?
ReplyDeleteIran has been at war with us since their religious revolution.
President Carter took the diplomatic approach to the American captives.
President Reagan signaled before he won that he would not be Cartet.
Yet, Reagan put Marines in harms way and refused to do anything about it.
Clinton warred on Americans while ignoring OBL and the Islamic War being waged against us. His penis was more important to him.
W was the reluctant war monger. He was supposed to be the domestic minded R president, but the Islamic war that began under Clinton made him and us, mostly, bloodthirsty.
Obama effed everything up and sided with terrorists and anti-American countries. He effin funded the current Iranian efforts. His Sec of State Hillary gave Russia uranium for money.
Trump has made clear he does not war. He wants to get along. However, if he has to he will wage war, not Vietnam style war that W did (yeah, clear and hold with the surge was due to Vietnam style tactics).
Same goes for Trump's domestic politics. He has been subjected to the most aggressive and intrusive politically motivated colonoscopy and yet he was still willing to work with the Dems.
But, nooooo, can't be. Dems are idjits fulfilling their historical role of tearing America apart.