If you watched Donald Trump’s victory-lap speech Wednesday morning, you know why so many Americans will never rally around him, even in a time of crisis.
It’s not just that most Americans don’t trust him. It’s that he won’t allow it. It seems as if he doesn’t even want it. And as if to prove the point, even a few Trump-enabling Senate Republicans, Rand Paul and Mike Lee, came out with their own anti-Trump ballistics, bashing the administration for telling senators in a classified briefing that they shouldn’t even debate Trump’s policy — if you can call it a policy — on Iran.
Paul and Lee are, of course, from the isolationist wing of the party. And the centerpiece of Trump’s Middle East strategy is supposedly no more forever wars. But here we are.
In Trump’s eight-minute speech to the nation, he wasted no time in blaming Barack Obama for the whole Iranian mess and accusing Obama of funding the bullets that kill Americans in the Middle East. On Obama, it seems as if Trump can’t help himself. You can make your own off-the-couch psychological explanation for that. But politically speaking, it was an unnecessary dig that cheapened the entire exercise for at least half the audience. Oh, and it’s also entirely wrong.
In the simplest terms possible, that’s not how you unite a country when we’re at risk of war. And, yes, the risk is still very much alive. And it’s not just Trump. Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, trying to sound as Trump-like as possible, has said the only people mourning Suleimani were Democratic leaders and Democratic presidential candidates. She tried, unsuccessfully, to walk that back, but she should know — that’s not what Trump would do.
And yet, we should give Trump credit. After a nervous night — in which he apparently came very close to escalating the shooting war with Iran — he got one thing right, one really important thing. With an apparent major assist from Iran — which fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles at two air bases in Iraq, but killed no one and then followed that attack with an announced willingness to call it a day — Trump stepped off the escalation escalator.
So, no hot war with Iran in retaliation for Trump’s needlessly provocative killing of Iranian Gen. Qassim Suleimani. At least for now. Iran had promised revenge, and hitting bases in Iraq where American troops are housed was apparently enough. Iranians recognized a hot war with the United State would be a disaster for them. Ask any spare former general who’s not currently doing color commentary on one of the cable news networks, and he or she will tell you it would also be a disaster for the United States as well. If only Trump understood that.
Remember the rationale of an “imminent” threat? That’s just so much history now, and we’ll leave it to Congress (or, more likely, The New York Times or Washington Post) to figure out what really happened. No one would be surprised if the Trump administration might have fudged the truth/lied. Meanwhile, Michael Bennet accused Trump of lying about the nuclear deal that Trump walked away from. And Lee, the Republican senator from Utah, said that the Trump administration briefing on Iran was the “maybe the worst” he’d experienced in nine years as a senator and said it was an “insulting and demeaning” message to the 100 members of the Senate.
It’s also insulting and demeaning to all of us. And since we’ve learned that Mike Pompeo was pushing for Suleimani’s assassination for months, it seems unlikely that unnamed imminent threats — which the Trump administration couldn’t name even when asked by senators — were the cause. Lying your way into war, of course, is an old story. Want to replay Gulf of Tonkin or weapons of mass destruction?
In any case, the more important question now is this: Did Iran intentionally choose not to kill anyone — as some are suggesting — or was it just a lucky break? I don’t know. We do know that Iran warned Iraq of the attack, which was as good as warning the United States. And that American intelligence had spotted Iranians getting the missiles ready.
Sadly, that was the only thing that Trump got right. Let’s be honest. Leaving the nuclear deal that had apparently stopped Iran’s development of a nuclear bomb is at the root of this crisis. Iran and its proxies have long been the worst actors in the region, but Iran with a nuclear weapon is a whole other ball game. As we know, Trump went his own way, leaving Germany, France, Great Britain, Russia and China behind to go with “maximum pressure” sanctions against Iran. Now he has promised more sanctions. You don’t have to be a foreign policy expert to understand that if sanctions had been working, there would have been no need to kill Suleimani and risk provoking an all-out war.
This seemed like a moment to step back and see if some kind of new deal was possible. In fact, Trump did have some words of encouragement in that direction, but only after promising even greater sanctions. So now we’re waiting for the next disaster. Iran may have promised no more ballistic missile attacks, but does anyone believe that Iran won’t still be running its proxy wars? Whom would you trust in this matchup? It was just a few days ago that Trump promised that any Iranian attack on a military base would be answered with our “beautiful” new weapons.
And Iran, meantime, will be in a new race to develop a bomb, which Trump promised, at the start of his speech, will not happen. You have to ask yourself how exactly he would stop Iran without massive bombing and without Iran retaliating with real consequences.
And should that day come, Trump will stand, flanked by generals, look straight into the cameras and blame somebody else.
Should it happen, Trump will blame Obama. Just because…
Can the smart folks with the support of the majority of Americans please take over again now?
We’ve taken a look at the alternative proposed by the minority….and it’s painfully clear that the reality TV host pretending to be President* is in way over his head.
But hey, at least we can check that box off the list of things that we’ve tried and failed, right? We’d be the worst kind of stupid to repeat the same mistake.
So…moving forward…no need for more Racist Trickle Down Carnival Barkers without the capacity for rational thought.
Let’s try something else next time.
Israel’s current leader has given statements saying Iranian missiles have accuracy to 5 or 10 meters. The Saudi oil facility that was hit apparently had some missiles coming in accurate to about that same range. So the fact that Iranian missiles included some that went into empty ground, technically on a military base but far away from any actual facility or personnel, hints this retaliation was nuanced and not escalating.
Buckle up cupcake you’re in for a rough 5 or so years. Biden?,C’mon man.! won’t be alive for long. “Carnival Barker’s”? Phony Indians are OK ? You think the country will elect a soft boy? (Obama got a pass because of race and kept it on the “Down low”)
I’m going out on a limb here You’re one of the “Smart folk’s” ? Yeah I thought so… No ego problem there either.
Did you have to get up early for the litte bus?
Maga ! Trump 2020 Nikki 2024!
You’re just a cacophony of pathology aren’t you.
I’d love to get you on my couch for an hour, but not in the way you might hope.
All of these guys are one-dimensional. President Donald Trump is dealing with 50 states in USA, and rest of the world, since USA is back in lead, of planet EARTH. So what he does is protect the Executive Power of USA, and also lead others to emulate USA. If these guys, will get off of their one state focus, and think of what the real danger in world is, they will realize that RUSSIA just changed their government, to new focus, to support Putin, who is thinking of Russia and its future. And cabinet officers changed accordingly, to reduce spending, and get “more for the buck” than they have in past period.
——–With a bit of reflection, they will realize that is what Donald Trump, brought to USA in Election of 2016. Look at the DOW, in comparison where it was in 2015-2016. And the Appeasement of past administrations, did not stop IRAN, N .Korea, or others in trying to develop Nuclear Weapons. Donald is driving a wedge between China, who backs N. Korea, and offers 9 minute destruction of our ships, military in Japan and the area. Take away threat N. Korea and China, over Japan, and China Sea, and we will have gone long way, in bringing lasting peace to that area. Killing the Quds Commander was message to N. Korea, China, Germany, and France, and Turkey.
Harry Truman led USA in using Nuclear Bombs in Japan, bringing that war to an end, and keeping World Peace for many years, under MAD If you have to look that up, you are young, and do not understand.
Mike Littwin, What have we learned since the 16th. Iran no more wants a war with USA, than we want with them. But did you watch the video, of what those missile-rockets from Iran-Iraq do to the base in Iraq? If Donald and Dept. of Defense had not received the alert of attack, there would have been USA troops in that bunker that was hit. And we did not have any deaths, but 9 military have been removed to different base, to hospital to be treated for concussions. They will be treated, counseled, and when physically able, return to Iraq, to their unit. Others were injured and have been returned to USA t o heal, be treated, and future decisions made. —–So you can quit patting yourself on your back, for opposing Donald Trump, but his actions, his experience, his global acceptance, led to USA getting the alert. AND YOU HAVE NO NEED TO KNOW, FROM WHO, OR HOW? Only the Department of Defense, Intelligence (when their leaders can be trusted to lead , not work against the President, and USA) , but the rank and file, agents are very effective. Have kept USA safer then prior administration, now that they are allowed to do their work, as they know how. The leaders who were fired, or replaced, need to be investigated, prosecuted, and punished for not living up to Oath of Office they took. I have had many contacts through military service, with FBI, OSI, DNI, CIA, and Special Security folks. Too many politicians and educational types do not understand the National Security System, and Security Clearances. Violate our laws constantly, which helps the other countries, who are there to learn for “Useful Idiots”. And our MSM need to be more National Security smart, since they write and question, when they have no SECURITY CLEARANCE,, and NO NEED TO KNOW. And Public does not have need to know everything that happens, especially in the Intelligence Areas.
——-If you have not seen that video, Mike. Look for it on CNN. They received permission to check area where plane was shot down, and also to view where the missile-rockets landed in Iraq. And while watching the video, imagine yourself being in that bunker building, when the explosions happened on landing.