Israel had opposed the smaller-scale strikes Trump was considering three weeks ago out of a sense they would merely be symbolic, and not worth the risk of massive retaliation.
That dynamic has shifted. A succession of Israeli spies and generals — including Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Gen. Eyal Zamir — have visited D.C. in recent days. Zamir briefed Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Dan Caine on Israel's offensive and defensive plans in the event of war with Iran.
"It's safe to say that nothing came out of that meeting to change his or the president's mind on attacking Iran," a U.S. official said, referring to Caine and Trump. "It's really the Israelis who want a strike. The president is just not there."
What they're saying: A senior U.S. official said Trump "really does not want to do it."
Any ideas? Is there any place at all (yet)?
New York Times: How Trump Took Up the ‘Christian Genocide’ Cause in Nigeria
Sitting at the grand wooden table, they outlined their concerns to Sebastian Gorka, the National Security Council’s senior director for counterterrorism, who has falsely argued that violence is a fundamental part of Islam.
I thought the MSM was going to clean up their act. This is editorializing if ever there was one. An omniscient voice denouncing someone as making a false argument without any counterargument whatsoever (it links to an 'expert says' article that names no one).
Mr. Gorka, a vocal defender of the administration’s efforts to temporarily ban travel from some predominantly Muslim countries, has said violence is a fundamental part of Islam and emanates from the language of the Quran. He rejects scholars’ assessment that Islamic militancy is an outgrowth of poverty, poor governance and war.
So the Islamic world has been poorly governed since its beginning? Including by the PDF-file? I assume Islamic militants would not like to hear that from these 'scholars'.
A few weeks ago: "regime change is bad" was updated to "regime change is good". This was a great success, so now new updates are being released.
Now, there is a new update: "must not be infringed" now means "if you're carrying a concealed gun at a protest, you are a domestic terrorist and will be summarily executed after being disarmed and restrained."
Please prepare for your next update, due to be released in a couple of months. In "We oppose Middle Eastern quagmires", strike the word 'oppose' and insert 'support'.
Thank you for your attention to this matter, and remember to keep trusting the plan.
Has anyone seen the debate between Dave Smith and Dinesh D'Souza? D'Souza has been obsessively posting in favor of Israel, and making fake 'documentaries' making really weird claims about the Bible prophesying the fight between Hamas and Israel. Really bizarre.
But he humiliated himself utterly in this debate. I had to listen to it again just to make sure that I heard everything correctly.
He claimed that the Cold War was a war, even though 'bullets didn't fly', because missiles were built. He simultaneously claimed that invading Venezuela, killing a hundred people and kidnapping their president was not a war.
He said that Europe is too lax in its enforcement of 'hate speech laws'. He cited the Emirates as a good example of fighting Islamism and quoted one of their guys as saying: "In America and Europe, anti-semitism is an opinion, here it is a crime".
He claimed that America helping the Islamists in Afghanistan fighting the Soviets was an example of an intervention that was a great success.
He unironically cited the "narco-terrorist" line about Venezuela to justify the invasion. Later on, he admitted that it was just a pretext and claimed that it was about Maduro allegedly emptying prisons into the US.
At one point, he said that he only supports wars that are in accordance with "our values and our interests". Then he said that he supports Venezuela because they have oil that we want. His values include stealing other people's oil?
He's also a Machiavellian through and through. He advocated for ignoring the constitutional prescription that only Congress can declare war, saying that Congress doesn't do much. Exactly the leftist excuse for judicial lawmaking: "Congress didn't do what we wanted, so the judiciary had to act." And at the end, he mocked Dave Smith for believing that Congress should have the ability to declare war, not the president, because Congress is easier to influence by moneyed interests. As if Smith would then say: "You know, Dinesh, I never thought of it that way. I guess that since Congress is easier to manipulate, we should just ignore the Constitution".
All in all, a complete embarrassment. It really wasn't worth the $7,000.
Apparently, USG is doing the same thing it did before the June attack on Iran.
Expect that if Iran shows restraint or is unable to hit back, the shills will say: "See? They're a paper tiger, and can't do anything. Let's bomb them more."
Expect that if Iran does hit back and kills any number of American soldiers, the shills will say: "Outrageous! They have killed Americans! Let's bomb them more."
See the title.
Empires seem to deploy their powers to the maximum, desisting only when they no longer have the wherewithal. We may soon be reminded that it was American decline that put Mr. Trump in a position to set American foreign policy in the first place.
Why is Trump pardoning every sort of corrupt politician, drug dealer and crook out there, but not Snowden and Assange?
