An interesting update. So where did this new “intel” about missles on Iranian patrol boats come from?
Oh, wait: Bolton has this nasty little habit of manipulating intel to get what he wants.
“We saw a pattern of Mr. Bolton trying to manipulate intelligence to justify his views,” former deputy secretary of state Tony Blinken recently told The New Yorker when discussing Bolton’s failure to secure Senate confirmation when he was appointed as U.S. ambassador to the U.N.
“If it had happened once, maybe. But it came up multiple times, and always it was the same underlying issue: he would stake out a position, and then, if the intelligence didn’t support it, he would try to exaggerate the intelligence and marginalize the officials who had produced it.”
Now Trump says he wants to follow a diplomatic route. Well, he had that before he nixxed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action- which they were trying to comply with!
lolll the people Saudis are massacring because they demanded control over their own country and will not surrender to an absolute monarchy which did 9/11, are stooges of Iran and they did a sabotage of which there is no evidence or even theory of what actually happened, on the other side of the peninsula from their country which Saudi and UAE militaries are bombing to dust. These critical NatSec Insights are why we need A Strong Merchant Marine, for when we eagerly get lied into another war
It might be more productive and much simpler to just force all elected officials, cabinet members, military royalty, and their staff in DC to remain in DC, above ground in all cases of increased threat.
The article makes a lot of insinuations about Bolton that are not backed-up in the article with any type of evidence. Also, calling Donald Rumsfeld “Rummy” is not professional at all. The suggestion that Ahmedinejad would be pals with Trump made me stop reading; good thing the author put that at the end of the article.
I do have to say that the comparative numbers of military forces presents something to think about. However, the Iraqi military was the 4th largest force in the world prior to 2003. Between their reliance on centralized Soviet-type command structure and outright surrenders, their military ceased to exist.
Would that happen with Iran? Hard to tell. But they also rely on the centralized Soviet-style of command & control. So if/when the upper leadership at the top gets wiped out or is unable to communicate with subordinate leaders, those lower echelon units become paralyzed by fear of retribution (should any of their actions fail) or ignorance of how to operate independently. Iraq had their Republican Guard, that fought to the last, as do the Iranians. However, unrelenting B-52 carpet-bombing eventually broke their will to fight. Would invading Iran be easy? Not by a long shot. Iran is a geographically huge country. Iran is also (at least) financially backed by Russia, so that would be a consideration for the war-planners. But a conventional war with Iran would indeed be a long, bloody slog.
Honestly I don’t think Trump is contemplating war with Iran. I think, as a businessman and deal-maker, he wants to bring Iran to the table, and negotiate. While war is indeed a racket, it also produces more loss than gain. Yes, WW2 re-energized the American manufacturing sector and brought us out of the Depression, but those were unique conditions, and the world was indeed fighting outright tyranny from Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Those conditions are not present today.
Not that I have any interest at all in defending any of that crowd but the article was not written as an academic document, it is a general readership opinion piece.
“Rummy” was Rumsfeld’s nickname used by old Princeton classmates, journalists, friends, and even “shrub” Bush. It’s not like the author was calling him an asshole though plenty of other people did, famously including Fran Townsend, assistant to the president for homeland security during the hurricane Katrina debacle.
My educated guess is that some yahoos in a dinghy went around one night and slapped small explosives on the sterns of several ships that weren’t being adequately monitored.
Two questions. First question, for the moderators and/or administrator(s): didn’t one of you write sometime back that politicized threads weren’t going to be tolerated? Second question, for Catherder, since this thread IS politicized: after today’s comments by the DNK regarding who likely was responsible for the recent attacks on four ships off the port of Fujairah, do you still think the Prime Minister of Israel has his fingerprints all over this?
That pretty well excludes any high level players. All you need to do it properly is scuba gear and the knowledge to go for the engine room bilges, which is well within the means of the Revolutionary Guard and the like…
I was twice at Fujairah 1990 after US attacked Iraq. My ship had just left Kuwait when Iraq attacked. A little later USA decided to attack Iraq. My ship was operating in the Gulf on a time charter and was ordered to Fujairah. After a while it was chartered by the US MARAD to supply US troops in the Gulf with ice cream, Coca Cola, etc. The US MARAD ships couldn’t enter the Gulf for numerous reasons and stopped at Fujairah to offload the ice cream, etc… I had the opportunity to visit the MARAD ships. All dirty rust buckets. I wondered how they could have reached Fujairah. Fujairah shore side was at the time just a parking lot with some offices. I slept on my ship and after US MARAD accepted my ship, I went back to Dubai for a beer. Those were the times.
