what a crummy way to start the new year. In recent times, unless you live under a rock, you know that Iranian-proxy militia-men rocketed an American installation in Iraq, killing an American "Contractor". (odd how nobody says what he was contracting to do, but as Contractor has become a synonym for mercenary, I think it's safe to say we know what kind of man he was. )
The United States retaliated by pulling off a Tom Clancy level scheme to assassinate Iranian Major General and commander of the Quds force wing of the Iranian Republican Guards corps Suliemanei.
Iran in turn replied to this by launching some number of IRBMs loaded with conventional warheads at American installations in Iraq. No Americans were killed in the rocketing. We can thank our luck and our advanced warning systems for that.
And now, The Ball is back in Trump's court. He has as of this AM said that we do not want war, and we're stepping back from the brink. Trump actually said the Iranians were standing down. but then, I don't trust two words out of Trump's mouth. If The Dear Leader Trump tells you it's raining out, better go look out a window. Some of my thoughts on this matter below the jump.
"The meek shall inherit the earth. "to the depth of six feet." anonymous WW2 G.I.
Mankind has been warring on each other since the first man stooped to grab a fruit off the ground and bumped heads with someone else who also wanted said fruit. It's no good pretending otherwise. Now that we've acknowledged that, we can move on. Mankind has warred on each other for eons. But who said it always had to be that way ? This idea that we *must* make war on Iran simply because they're Muslims just doesn't pass the smell test. We need not destroy all but ourselves simply because they're different. Now, I'm not saying we should cave to every idiotic demand the Iranians make (and believe me brothers and sisters they have made some lulus. ) And I'm also not saying they're a bunch of poor, peace-loving fellows who simply want to get along. The rank and file Iranian may in fact be so, but their leaders are as nationalistic and jingoistic as ours are. However, I also think it's possible, and even desirable, to proffer the olive branch, from behind our shields. Hate Reagan all you want, but he had one thing right. "Trust, but verify. " We need to step back and allow cooler heads to prevail. We need to work our way back to the status quo that existed under the JCPOA. Scoff at it if you will, but under the JPCOA, Iran gave up weapons development for a minimum of 10 years, with extensions possible. More importantly, it put Iran and the Western Powers (most especially the USA) on a path toward maybe eventually having normalized relations. In short, Peace. But now, Trump has imperiled all of that, because he cannot stand the idea that a black man cut a better deal that he can. He simply cannot stand the idea of anyone being better at anything, and especially at deal-making, a thing he has convinced himself he's a master of. But it's still not too late. Do not mistake the Iranian response as being weak because they couldn't mount a serious response. Put that out of your head right now. Iran has about 20,000 well-equipped blooded, ready soldiers in Iraq right now, and they have another 80 to 120k ready to go at a phone call's notice. We have about 5000 troops scattered across Iraq. They could have wiped out our forces at any moment. They may still do so, and all we could do is retaliate. Thank whatever you believe in that cooler heads prevailed in Tehran as well. We're not out of the woods yet, but maybe there's a clearing ahead. There is still a chance for peace.Barack Obama worked very hard to put together the JCPOA, and we allowed Trump to ruin it.
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