In typical Donald Trump fashion?
Things are going sideways…..
While President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have been unequivocal in their assertion that Iran was responsible for the attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman last week, some of America’s closest allies are demanding more proof.
Both Japan and Germany have requested more concrete evidence to support the Trump administration’s insistence that Iran was behind the twin attacks on the Norwegian-owned Front Altar and the Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous near the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday.
Following the explosions, the U.S. released a grainy video that allegedly showed an Iranian patrol boat removing an unexploded mine from the Courageous shortly after the initial blast.
The footage, Trump said Friday, was proof that “Iran did do it.”
“You know they did it because you saw the boat,” he told “Fox & Friends.”
But U.S. allies ― and the owner of the vessel itself ― have disagreed with this conclusion. The president of Kokuka said at a press conference that the Courageous appeared to be struck by something that “flew towards the ship,” and not by a mine as the Trump administration has suggested….
Iran will break the uranium stockpile limit set by Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in the next 10 days, the spokesman for the country’s atomic agency said Monday while also warning that Iran has the need for uranium enriched up to 20%, just a step away from weapons-grade levels.
The announcement indicated Iran’s determination to break from the landmark 2015 accord, which has steadily unraveled since the Trump administration pulled America out of the deal last year and re-imposed tough economic sanctions on Iran, sending its economy into freefall.
The spokesman for Iran’s nuclear agency, Behrouz Kamalvandi, made the announcement during a press conference with local journalists at Iran’s Arak heavy water facility that was carried live on Iranian state television….
A shooting war with Iran (as countenanced and implicitly advocated by John Bolton, Mike Pompeo and Bibi Netanyahu) , would be sheer, utter madness.
Iran’s land mass is about the same as Alaska’s (although most map projections distort their relative sizes) and her population of about 85 million is about a quarter of U.S.’s, or — seen differently —about the same as California and the entire Domino of Canada combined (with maybe Oregon & Washington added in).
Her active armed forces number about 523,000 and her reserves about 350,000 vs America’s 1,248,000 and 858,000.
And almost every Iranian, regardless of his or her opinion about the theocracy, will rally around the flag if the country is invaded.
That doesn’t mean that many Iranians would love régime change, but they have long memories of the CIA’s reinstallation of the Shah in 1953 and more-recent memories of the mess caused by invading Iraq in 2003.
For roughly the same reasons, the U.S. is not likely to be able to assemble even the Coalition of the Willing. The only significant possible allies would be Israel and Saudi Arabia.
But I doubt that Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Italy, or even Australia would join in any new coalition. Egypt and Turkey would be extremely doubtful.
Iran, Shi’ite in a Sunni world, would probably be supported by Iraq, and quite possibly Russia and China too.
Absolutly DSD….
Bolton may want it…
Trump certainly does NOT….
The problem is you’d need a build up of over 100,000 troops….
Huge equipment…
It would take months ….
Iran would go asymmetrical with terrorism strike’s in theatre and probably in Europe and yes…America…
Bolton, I assume, will get yanked if things get too stupid….