From Digby:
My Salon column this morning:
Bright and early Thursday morning, President Trump angrily declared on Twitter: "Iran made a very big mistake!" He had obviously heard the news that Iran's Revolutionary Guards had shot down a very expensive American unmanned drone over international waters. (You know how he feels about money.) It was obviously some kind of threat but not too much later he met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and told the assembled press corps that he had "a feeling ... that it was a mistake made by somebody," giving the impression that he either knew this wasn't an act ordered by the top Iranian brass or was just trying to offer them a way out.
Later in the evening, this happened:
Trump approved a strike on Iran to be launched tonight in retaliation for drone shutdown but then abruptly changed his mind and pulled back. @shearm @EricSchmittNYT @michaelcrowley @maggieNYT nytimes.com/2019/06/20/wor…
As late as 7 p.m., military and diplomatic officials were expecting the strike. The president had approved attacks on a handful of Iranian targets, like radar and missile batteries. But then he pulled back, at least for now.
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According to the New York Times, the operation was already underway with planes in the air and ships in position to fire missiles just before dawn on Friday. As of this writing nobody seems sure what prompted Trump to pull back when he did. There's no word on whether or not it was due to a change in the situation or simply another of his impulsive actions. The fact that the news media found out about it so quickly argues for the latter. People don't leak something like that unless they are shocked by what went down.
7 comments:
Don't y'all feel safe knowing that the Stable Genius told the world that the drone Iran shot down was UNMANNED!!!! No man or woman was in the DRONE!!!1!!!!!1
Don't forget, this is the guy the Trumpublicans love!
Stable Genius! Stable Horeshit for Brains more like it.
I don't think he wants to be the one to start a war with Iran without allied support but sooner or later Bolton and the Bulletheads might have their way.
Right now someone else has his ear but for how long.
Trump is claiming that the reason he canceled the attack at the last minute is that he found out it would cause an estimated 150 deaths on the Iranian side, and he felt it was disproportionate for shooting down an unmanned drone. If so, it's bizarre that he didn't obtain a casualty estimate before that point.
I do find it somewhat credible that he would worry about casualties, because 150 dead might have provoked Iran to retaliate and escalate, perhaps leading to a real war which Trump probably realizes would further damage his chances of re-election.
Crooks and Liars believes the whole aborted attack was a staged event and Trump never intended to attack Iran.
He should have just given Iran a few billion and shut up about their nuclear weapons pursuit and their aggression toward the US. Look how well that has worked out for the U.S. after a certain president did it. Iran has a hate the US policy and maybe we can bribe the with enough money, taxpayers money of course, to have them love us.
Trump is bizarre. So I am not surprised by anything he says or does that is considered bizarre by the majority of folks.
Trump drew two red lines then backed off. Remember when the Goopers thought Obama was weak?
Trump is the weakest president we've ever had.
Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal reached under a real president (President Obama) and Trump is crippling Iran's economy, the result of harsh sanctions.
The present problem is SOLELY Trump's responsibility. It is perfectly reasonable that the Iranian government neither trusts or respects the Dotard.
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