USA/Iran

[BarbTherese]

The middle east needs our prayer too.

My thoughts only: The assassination of the Iranian general by President Trump USA  has further destabilised the situation in the middle east.  It has, however, diverted headlines from the potential impeachment of President Trump, but at a terrible cost.  I heard that there is a movement in the USA by the democrats in Congress to withdraw certain of the President's military powers.  https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/08/politics/war-powers-act-explainer-iran/index.html

President Trump to me is unpredictable and unstable.   Not that we in Australia can talk any higher of our own Prime Minister.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/18/donald-trump-sanity-free-market-white-supremacist-nationalism"As the threat of impeachment leaves him more isolated, and an election he may lose makes him more vulnerable, we can expect more bizarre behaviour and, consequently, more attempts to frame his actions as those of an unstable and unhinged despot. Such depictions are tempting. They should also be resisted.

Trump’s state of mind is, of course, relevant. He is the commander-in-chief of the most powerful military forces in the world. He has the nuclear codes. He is impulsive and capricious. He lies constantly, unashamedly and apparently compulsively. It is deeply worrying that the executive powers of the presidency lie in the hands of a man who is at one and the same time so brittle, aggressive, vindictive, ridiculous and self-obsessed. His decision to abandon a longstanding ally in Kurdistan and pull US troops out of Syria, against all military advice, is a case in point."

I am sincerely asking myself if I have the political leaders I deserve.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/15/donald-trump-nuts-impeachment-25th-amendment-2020-election

Excerpt:........."...........I think we have to face the truth that no one seems to want to admit. This is no longer a case of excessive narcissism or grandiosity. We’re not simply dealing with an unusually large ego.

The president of the United States is seriously, frighteningly, dangerously unstable. And he’s getting worse by the day......."............

Edited January 9, 2020 by BarbaraTherese

[Guest]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-08/qantas-to-avoid-iran-iraq-airspace-perth-london/11852472

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-07/world-war-3-qassem-soleimani-trump-us-and-iran/11841254

[Lilllabettt]

Nah. The war has been going on between the US and Iran for decades. This has just been brought to light by this incident because for once the US was willing to claim responsibility. The international consensus on Trump before this was that he was predictable: talking loud but risk averse. I think this reestablishes deterrence. And frankly, as someone with a husband and two brothers (one currently deployed in Kuwait) in the armed forces I'm grateful that they did not allow Iranian militia to overrun the Marines in the US Embassy. 

This was a good setting for "escalation" because neither side wants war. Trump, because he is both a coward and because of how politically untenable it would be, and the Iranianian regime because of the example in their own backyard, of Iraq. 

So, Iran fired some missiles at American bases. They called the Iraqi PM ahead of time to warn the Americans.  There is some evidence the missiles were deliberately misaimed. There were no casualties. And Trump took advice for once and did not respond, and allowed them to save face with their people. 

For along time, because neither side was willing to confront the other openly (because both dreaded open war and both knew that about each other) there persisted a decades long shadow war with much violence and many deaths. Now that there is precedence that open confrontation could happen the shadow war may come to an end. 

[little2add]

2 hours ago, Lilllabettt said:

as someone with a husband and two brothers (one currently deployed in Kuwait) in the armed forces I'm grateful that they did not allow Iranian militia to overrun the Marines in the US Embassy. 

good point!