Cartoon by Bart van Leeuwen
The Trump administration is trying to make war with Iran inevitable
The Guardian: Last night, in response to Iran shooting down an American drone earlier this week, the United States came within one whim of an erratic and unstable president from launching a military strike on Iran.
Like the recent oil tanker attacks in the Gulf of Oman, the Trump administration has framed the drone incident as if it occurred in a vacuum – implying that the Iranians are launching these (alleged) attacks without provocation, and providing an aura of legitimacy to a possible American military response.
And that’s exactly what the Trump administration’s Iran hawks – led by the national security adviser, John Bolton, and the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo — have seemingly planned all along: to cultivate conditions that make military conflict with Iran the only option.
The current Iran predicament is the result of a years-long campaign by the same people who pushed for invasion of Iraq. Instead of learning from the Iraq debacle, they’ve decided that any means, including a potentially catastrophic war with Iran, are justified in order to achieve regime change in Tehran. Their public arguments for escalation with Iran have generally been cloaked as criticism of Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear agreement, by disingenuously calling for what they know is an unachievable “better deal”.
The facts are indisputable. When Trump assumed office, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – as the nuclear deal is formally known – was working as advertised, blocking Iran from building a nuclear weapon. The United Nations’ atomic energy watchdog has even confirmed more than a dozen times that Iran is, thus far, complying with the deal.
But instead of capitalizing on these gains, the Trump administration threw it all away to take a different path. Slowly, over time, Trump officials ramped up their bellicose rhetoric toward Iran; falsely accused Tehran of coordinating with al-Qaida (presumably to invoke the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force as legal justification for a possible attack); pulled out of the JCPOA; and imposed sanctions so devastating that the Iranians were almost certain to lash out, whether in the form of the minor skirmishes we’ve seen in recent weeks or rejection of the terms of the 2015 nuclear accord.
In early May, Bolton – an unrepentant Iraq war cheerleader who has been calling for war with Iran for nearly two decades – announced a military build-up in the region to counter purported threats from Iran. But we later found out that Team Trump was not only blowing that intel way out of proportion, but also that US intelligence agencies had assessed that Iran’s new and threatening activity was actually in response to the Trump administration’s aggression.
We should view Iran’s recent posturing for what it is: retaliation to the Trump administration’s unnecessary and deliberate provocation.
Although Trump backed down this time, the possibility of war with Iran is very real. Even a “limited strike” scenario could quickly spiral out of control.
Thankfully it appears that, for now, Trump is holding to his campaign promises of wanting to extricate the US from its Middle East forever wars and refrain from starting any new ones. But we’re dealing with Donald Trump and the primary factor in determining whether we go to war with Iran is whether he believes it will benefit him politically at home. Everything Trump says or does must be viewed through that lens.
To fight the Trump administration’s efforts to escalate conflict with Iran, we must call on Congress to speak out more forcefully against war with Iran, and get Congress to pass recently introduced legislation that would bar funding for any unauthorized war. It might also mean, however distasteful it may feel, promoting voices calling for restraint from the only television news outlet Trump cares about, like Tucker Carlson at Fox.
But of course there are no guarantees. There still remains a well-funded, influential, and eager pro-Iran war lobby pushing Trump towards conflict. The only question that remains is whether it will box him in far enough to the point of no return, or whether a public campaign against war can provide the off ramp that will be required.
Ben Armbruster is the communications director for Win Without War and previously served as National Security Editor at ThinkProgress
Just like our own sar Dabir, the author is an obscure, unknown, and irrelevant fellow!!!
Bolton is *ucked and bloated!
During his presidential campaign, Trump said if the Washington Post didn’t write about him, it would go bankrupt. These “unknown and irrellevant” entities too mention Trump, Bolton and others in order to find readers, viewers and audience, otherwise, no one would notice them.
If Iran tensions flare, Israel may strike while the world quietly watches
Iran shot down a U.S. drone on June 19, further escalating tensions between Iran and its adversaries.
Relations with Iran have been worsening for months. In early May, one year after the United States withdrew from the nuclear dealnegotiated in 2015 between Iran, the U.S., the European Union and five other countries, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that his country may also withdraw from the agreement, which limits its ability to develop nuclear weapons in exchange for lifting sanctions.
In June, Rouhani announced that Iran will restart uranium enrichment, which could put the country on track to develop a nuclear weapon within a year. Rouhani’s government insists its uranium will go to civilian nuclear power, not weapons.
https://www.business-standard.com/article/international/if-iran-tensions-flare-israel-may-strike-while-the-world-quietly-watches-119062300146_1.html
Donald Trump says military action against Iran still 'on the table'
President Donald Trump said Saturday he's still considering military action against Iran after it downed an unmanned US military aircraft, saying the use of force is "always on the table until we get this solved." The president said he aborted a military strike set for Thursday after learning 150 people would be killed. "I don't want to kill 150 Iranians. I don't want to kill 150 of anything or anybody unless it's absolutely necessary," he told reporters as he left the White House for a weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat.
Trump said "we very much appreciate" a decision by Iran's Revolutionary Guard not to shoot down a US spy plane carrying more than 30 people. He said the downing of the US drone was "probably intentional" contradicting what he said Thursday. The president's comments came as Iran summoned the United Arab Emirates' top envoy to Tehran to protest the neighboring Arab nation's decision to allow the US to use a base there to launch the drone that Iran says entered its airspace, state media reported Saturday.
https://www.businesstoday.in/current/world/donald-trump-says-military-action-against-iran-still-on-the-table/story/358309.html
Amid tough talk, Trump says he could be Iran’s ‘best friend’
AP
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Saturday that military action against Iran was still an option for its downing of an unmanned U.S. military aircraft, but amid heightened tensions he dangled the prospect of eventually becoming an unlikely “best friend” of America’s longtime Middle Eastern adversary.
Trump also said “we very much appreciate” that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard chose not to target a U.S. spy plane carrying more than 30 people.
The president’s softer tone Saturday marked a stark contrast to the anti-Iran rhetoric he employed throughout the presidential campaign and presidency, including his use of punishing economic sanctions in an attempt to pressure Iran to give up its quest to build nuclear weapons.
https://www.apnews.com/b3001dc1cf6a4da59ab55ca759664068