Iran Situation

[jj22]

(01-08-2020, 08:32 PM)Dill Wrote: I often agree with you JJ, but not on this point. 

I mean, I agree that the US must have credibility, and that generally means following through with threats. But it also means that the "threats" have to be considered, thought through, clearly in the national interest, not random impulse, or worse.

If an ill-prepared and temperamentally unfit US president makes childish threats with little understanding of the consequences, then US credibility actually suffers more if he follows through than if he does not. The choice he thereby creates is between 1) another endless war in which thousands of Americans and Iranians die, or 2) a little backdown humiliation, not even registered by most Americans who still see it as a big "win" in a macho standoff.   Thousands of families are spared the death of a loved one so that the US can "save face."  

This brings us back to the original problem--it is not that the US is not following through with threats, but that the US president is issuing threats whose consequences he does not himself grasp and which bring us to the brink of war. In this case, we should be thankful if voters, Congress and diplomatic pressure from our allies can pressure that leader NOT to follow through. 

I don't disagree with any of this.

Trump should have kept his mouth shut.