Trump Tells Pentagon Chief He Does Not Want War With Iran - Polidicks

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/16/world/middleeast/iran-war-donald-trump.html President Trump has sought to put the brakes on a brewing confrontation with Iran in recent days, telling the acting defense secretary, Patrick Shanahan, that he does not want to go to war with Iran, administration officials said, while his senior diplomats began searching for ways to defuse the tensions. Mr. Trump’s statement, during a Wednesday morning meeting in the Situation Room, sent a message to his hawkish aides that he does not want the intensifying American pressure campaign against the Iranians to explode into open conflict. [...] But for all of his harsh words toward Tehran, several officials said Mr. Pompeo was rankled by being lumped in with Mr. Bolton as bent on war. A former Republican lawmaker, Mr. Pompeo is an astute reader of Mr. Trump’s preferences and will plunge into diplomacy, if necessary, as he has with North Korea. [...] Three officials said Mr. Trump is less frustrated with Mr. Bolton over his handling of Iran — he favors the tougher measures as a warning to Tehran — than over the evolving narrative that his national security adviser is leading the administration’s policy in the Middle East.

Yeah, he doesn't want it, he needs it. That's how he's gonna get re-elected.

Like I've been saying for years: Trump cannot lead. He is not a leader. He sometimes gives orders but everyone's gotten used to not following them, because they're usually dumb, and he never checks that they actually happened nor responds to the lack of obedience. I do not know who exactly is causing this flare-up with Iran. Trump did surround himself with a lot of anti-Iran people, and he pointlessly dropped out of a treaty with them just because it was an Obama achievement he could undo... but there's some real action going on, seemingly on the Iranian side. Maybe it's misdirection - US or Saudi forces faking attacks as a casus belli. Maybe it's just collateral damage from the proxy war in Yemen. Maybe it's Iran finally realizing that America is running on autopilot and maybe they could get away with the same sort of shit Russia got away with. I would really, really like not to fight a war with Iran. Honestly, if I had to choose between America being allied with Saudi Arabia, or America being allied with Iran, I'd probably choose Iran. There's a mostly-functional democracy operating underneath their theocracy, as opposed to the Saudi theocratic monarchy. But at the very least we have little reason to go to war with them, and I suspect we'll want our military rested and ready in the coming years, not slogging through another pointless brush war in the Middle East.

Then fire Bolton.

All the media has to do is prop up Bolton as the one in charge and Trump will give him the boot.

Would legitimately laugh if CNN just spent the rest of Trump's term gaslighting him about problematic underlings trying to usurp his power and watching Trump fire them. It'd be a real problem for the state of US journalism, but it's already a full-on crisis so why not have fun with the burning wreckage as the ground approaches.

says the man who lies to the world an average of 15 times a day.

I think Bolton wants the war more than Trump does tbh

https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/108570/7351d9c7-e2b9-4f09-b5a1-15ed19155a6e/image.png

Trump wishes he had his own 9/11

Hey, it'd mean he'd own the tallest buildings again!

He probably does. Trump has a lot of influence from Kissinger, who is anything but a neocon. His limited missile strike response in Syria, motions towards pulling at of Syria after Erdogan's questioning, and desire to have regional allies take the place of America to offset loads hints at his foreign policy thinking.

Bolton seems like the Cheney of this particular crisis, the difference being I don't think there will be a Blair this time around. Which might be what stops it from becoming a nightmare.

On a whiplash-of-the-week, President IQ:Subzero decided that this was a totally non-dangerous thing to state on a public media: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1130207891049332737

Ohhhh boy. Paradoxically Trump's stupidity is what now keeps this from getting out of hand. Imagine if a more stable president suddenly had such an outburst on his twitter.