If you want to avoid war, you just need to get Trump the memo that if we get into a war, he’s going to be expected to visit the troops in theater.
Remember, this asshole was too nuts for Dick Cheney.
I assume you mean Bolton, not the Tweeter? :). Yes, Bolton is a piece of work.
Iran’s government is not a nice bunch of people. The Iranian people, though, are a much different story, and strategically, I still argue that Iran is a better long-term pillar of stability in the region than Saudi Arabia, whose government is a rich combo of plutocrats, fundamentalists, and criminals. For every story about Iranian actions that destabilize the region–and yes, some of those are quite accurate–there are probably at least as many cases where the Saudis have done as bad or worse, that we don’t ever hear about (cough cough Yemen cough).
What is more, I have no idea what people like Bolton are actually thinking when they blithely push us towards fighting Iran. I mean, the only thing I can think of is that people like this know that a conflict in the “invade and occupy” mode like Iraq '03 is completely infeasible in regards to Iran, and instead are just looking for a chance to lob missiles and bombs and make money for their buddies in the defense industry while stroking their own sense of machismo or something. It would be bad enough if these bozos actually felt they were going to do something meaningful, however misguided. This, though, is just murder on a vast scale, for the jollies and enrichment of a bunch of putrid elites. It is highly unlikely to moderate Iranian behavior one iota. To the contrary, it is almost guaranteed to make Tehran a much, much more dangerous threat than it is now.
This is the day he truly became president.
(Hey, I’ll take it over the alternative.)
Gee, if only there were someone who outranks Bolton and commands the military…
Ivanka?
Sounds more like this is the day Bush truly became precedent.
I’ve always said so as well.
Iranians are good people. Their government is evil as hell, but not really any more evil than the Saudis. It’s just that they’ve aligned themselves against Israel and they’re a different kind of Muslim from most of the rest of the region, so everyone pushes us to hate them and vice versa.
Give a choice of Saudis and Iranians, I’d pick the Iranians.
Israel is a complicated issue, no matter how you slice it. I mean, even in my synagogue there are undercurrents of different thought, largely based on how people parse the different aspects of Israel (Jewish homeland, historical/biblical Ur-place, the government, Zionism, etc.). Much of what the government in Tehran spews out about Israel is despicable rantings, and no, threatening destruction of another regional state is not ok. Even there, though, there are actually nuances. The Iranian leadership always says they are speaking of the destruction of the political entity “Israel,” not “Israelis” or “Jews” per se, though often it’s understandably hard for Israelis to appreciate the subtle rhetorical differences, shall we say. Most Iranians, from what I have gathered over the years since I studied under a relatively well-know Iranian scholar during my first stint in grad school, have much more ambivalent feelings about most things than their government, Israel included, and certainly the Israelis have dealt with the Islamic Republic at points during the past few decades.
Oddly enough, international relations are complex and difficult (who knew?) and require knowledge, patience, and with any luck some wisdom. Qualities the current American (and often Iranian) administrations are sorely lacking.
This forum needs a like button. If only the majority of voters were half as thoughtful as that post…
It’s not that I’m that thoughtful, it’s that so many are simply not thinking.
I think.
Even thinking along very simple lines counts as thinking:
Swarthy fellow in turban: terrorist. Let’s bomb.
And they give aircraft carriers to these people. Gah.
It’s why Sikhs keep getting murdered in America. The bigots doing the killing think they’re Muslim.
What… what is Gene Simmons doing in the Pentagon briefing room? Is Trump taking the KISS Army thing a little too literally?
He’s the new SecDef, maybe?
I thought Ted Nugent was slated for that?
Narcissists of a feather and all that.
CNN has a story about Trump pushing back at his advisors and not really being onboard with the saber rattling stuff on Iran. Which, I suppose, is better than nothing, but if you read the story, it seems that the main reason he’s pushing back is purely political.“But Trump has raised concern with the heightened rhetoric, believing a large-scale military intervention with Iran would be devastating to him politically” (emphasis mine).
So, it’s not that he doesn’t think war is a good idea, or that he even knows much about what is going on, but that he feels that a war would be bad political juju. Erm, ok, that’s what we want out of our leaders, amirite? I mean, I’ll take it if it stops something colossally stupid, but sheesh.