Trump blocks US warmongers from bombing Iran

President Donald J. Trump welcomes newly named acting Secretary of Defense Mark Esper Wednesday, June 19, 2019, in the Oval Office of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)

Last week the American military-industrial complex (MIC) was ‘cocked & loaded’ to attack key targets in Iran, after Tehran downed a US military unmanned spy drone. Of course, the two sides clash over the exact position of the drone’s hit. However, the Iranians should have avoided hitting an American war machine outside of their air space. By the same token, the ability of the Iranians to target and take down such a high-altitude operating and sophisticated spy machine came as a surprise to the US military. Those remote controlled airplanes are supposed to be able to avoid being targeted by missiles. In any case, what is interesting is that President Donald Trump tweeted last Friday that he more or less blocked the military action, just ten minutes before releasing the US missiles. He also explained he did that after some general told him that the death toll of the American attack would be around 150 people. In detail, Trump in his tweet wrote, “We were cocked & loaded to retaliate last night on 3 different sights when I asked, how many will die. 150 people, sir, was the answer from a General. 10 minutes before the strike I stopped it. Not proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone. I am in no hurry.” Trump the pacifier ‘Not proportionate’ is not an expression John R. Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser would have used. Still, Bolton must have been the person Trump turned to for advice in such a critical security issue. The security adviser though famously answers all questions put to him with just one word: “war”. In his capacity as the Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor, Bolton must have pressed hard to hit Iran and start a new and much more devastating war in the Middle East. This warmongering kind of Washington’s apparatchiks like Bolton doesn’t really care about what such military action may cost. They are interested only in increasing armaments sales. This is the motto of the American MIC people. Everything else is not important whatsoever. The key words Trump, however, by using the phrase ‘the answer from a General’, without naming such an important person, shows Presidential discomfort. The two key phrases Trump uses in this tweet must then be considered in correlation. ‘Not proportionate’ and ‘10 minutes before the strike I stopped it’, mean that Trump tells MIC and Bolton they tried to mislead him. Evidently, the disproportionate character of the hit was known much earlier than 10 minutes before asking the Commander in Chief to pull the trigger. Trump clearly charges the warmongers with that. Unquestionably, the American military-industrial complex prepares a war against Iran for many weeks now. Trump however doesn’t appear ready to pull the trigger for two very important reasons. For one thing this is not a simple military hit, with long range missiles launched safely from far away. The American military personnel in the region will be also targeted by the highly developed Iranian military machine. Iran is not a small country On top of that, Iran is a big country, with affiliations in the wider Middle East region, thus making vulnerable not only all the American targets but also the US allies in the wider area (mainly Saudi Arabia and Israel). As a result, the possible and significant US and other casualties would be very difficult to be justified by the American voters. The second important problem related to a possible war against Iran is the certainty that  international outcry is bound to follow. It’s not only Russia and China to effectively question and practically counter the American action in the Persian Gulf. All the major European countries one by one and the European Union as one entity would consider such an American unprovoked attack against Iran as unforgivable. Europe doesn’t only depend on Persian Gulf’s crude oil but the region is a prime customer to all kinds of EU supplies. Infuriating the world If the Americans press the button after all, it’s not at all easy to envisage where a war of this size can lead the entire world. Apart from Russia and China, all the major Eurasian countries would be implicated directly or indirectly, making any predictions about their reaction impossible. It would certainly be considered as a US attempt to show everybody who is in charge in the entire world. It seems then that in view of all that Trump doesn’t feel disposed to start a new and much more perilous Middle East war. It’s not only that. Even ahead of the November 2016 Presidential election Trump’s anti-globalization and inward-looking rhetoric had perturbed his party and the American MIC. But not really So, last Saturday Trump announced he was open to talks with the Iranians. He said, “If Iran wants to become a prosperous nation… it’s OK with me. But they’re never going to do it if they think in five or six years they’re going to have nuclear weapons.” Once again, Trump obviously minimizes the threat of an Iranian nuclear weapon. As a result, he almost states he is not going to authorize a military attack against Iran, at least not in the predictable future. Five to six years is a very long time. Instead, the US military machine is authorized only to launching cyber-attacks against the Iranian missile weapon systems infrastructure. The US is also to impose new sanctions on Tehran. Other American presidents have also opposed MIC’s dangerously aggressive machinations. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama respectively delayed for many years the attacks against the Ex-Yugoslavia in the 1990s and recently in Syria. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s famous farewell speech to the American nation as 34th President was centered on the threats MIC poses to the US democracy and economy. He actually coined the term ‘military-industrial complex’.

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