Of course you saw this coming. After all, we do have a Republican administration, which – by definition – means war in the oil soaked Middle East, eventually. Silly that we once relied upon Trump’s one semi-redeeming value; his stated isolationist stance on wars in areas that certainly do not threaten American lives.
With all the death and destruction from the week before last (remember Gilroy?), the White House made a critical move that largely went under the radar. Huffington post picked it up a week late, surely leaked by a few brave but terrified folks on the inside.
President Trump’s administration sanctioned Iranian Foreign Minister Jovad Sharif last week – a highly unusual move that essential blacklists the country’s top diplomat when the U.S. and Iran have come exceedingly close to open military conflict. As a means of furthering U.S. interests, experts deem the move nonsensical.
No shit?
Great idea, we may well be close to shooting at a nation, so why bother speaking to the one person their government designated to talk to our government? Nonsense, indeed. Well, unless your goal is to ensure those shots get fired. It appears some harbor that goal.
God help us. The administration surely won’t.
One cannot help but think that one of the Trump whisperers in the White House has won out over the non-blood-thirsty folks, often referred to as “doves,” or pheasants, or ducks, any bird that does not dive at your head as a meal plan.
The ultimate goal became apparent the moment the U.S. pulled out of the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, the agreement that everyone outside the current administration agreed was working. Experts with unprecedented access to Iran’s facilities found nothing. The results satisfied every other nation on the U.N. Security Council.
To be fair, no other nation on the Security Council has to deal with bloodthirsty Republicans rising every eight years.
It is rare to sanction a foreign minister. We have not done it to Syria or North Korea. Both countries represent a far greater threat to actual American lives, but neither sits atop the world’s second largest oil reserves. Let’s face it, Iran’s biggest sin is its unwillingness to simply give us the oil. Being Islamic doesn’t help, either.
Even more worrisome. The “hardliners” in the administration include Sec. of State Pompeo, and National Security Advisor John Bolton. In other words, the two most powerful voices regarding foreign policy. I doubt that Ben Carson’s, or the Surgeon General’s carry much weight. I have no idea what their position might be on the matter, in part because it couldn’t matter in the least.
Not scared enough? I can help more. If Trump feels vulnerable going into 2020, and there is nothing we want more, he is far more likely to believe that a war will boost his chances. History sure teaches such, something Pompeo and Bolton have obviously pointed out already.
We have a Republican administration. We can count on the sun continuing to rise in the east, and war initiating in the Middle East – never the Far East, they have little oil. Lives will be lost over oil, and gross amounts of public treasury money spent. More than last time.
Iran actually has a real military, and a larger, better educated population than Iraq. That fact seems to matter less than even my personal opinion. After all, oil doesn’t care who has what military, neither do the hawks in the administration. They want their war.
It is their due, they got more electoral votes. As always, they want more oil, which they believe is also their due.
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Peace, y’all. Futile as it may seem.
Jason
It’s a fear of commitment, not isolationism, that has stayed Trump’s hand on Iran. He knows the second that he flips that switch, there’s no going back, no equivalent of bankruptcy when (not if) things start to go badly. He may yet do it, of course, but let us please stop assuming that we are about to see a repeat of W’s mess cubed. The man loves fireworks, not actual combat.
I nearly put that in there, though I called it “fear of failure” – which is basically the same thing. The only reason I didn’t is that when it comes to things where people can and will be killed, I think we have a bit more moral obligation to not speculate. That doesn’t make you wrong, I think that is an underlying factor to his “stated” isolationism. There are other factors, he likely doesn’t perceive the lives of “good Americans” to be worth losing over involving “foreigners” but I don’t mean that in a good way. I mean a insouciant attitude toward using the American military to help avoid atrocities of people he doesn’t care about. Does that make sense?
It does, Jason. Another thing I’m questioning on this is the logistics of all this. One thing I’ve noticed is how Trump never gives people time to prepare for what he wants done. Assuming this goes forward, he may well order troops to go RIGHT THAT SECOND rather than let them adequately prepare. If that happens, we could be seeing a tragedy on the order of Gallipoli during WWI. After that failed raid in Yemen early on in DT’s presidency, I wonder if such a scenario doesn’t haunt him for how badly it would make him look.
Exactly. He cannot talk his way into his self-perceived perfection with self-evident deaths and failure.