Iran

[spence]

Originally Posted by Sea Dangles

Thank you for the flash bulletin Jeff.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Of, that one hurt. Must have been a TDF-SD collaboration.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by spence

Of, that one hurt. Must have been a TDF-SD collaboration.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

he’s increasing sanctions, and he
let the Iranians know that it was very close to being worse for them. Trump has done things i can not stand. i think he handled this about as well as it could
have been handled.

he had a few options, and no matter what he did, the
liberals in the media would have attacked him for it, and you would have sucked it up
like a Hoover deluxe.

what would
you have had him do? Nothing? Send them more cash?
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[Pete F.]

I would rather he built a coalition, than send Pompeo after the fact to the Middle East to try and assemble one, or put one back together depending on your viewpoint.

America First (Alone) is not an example of good leadership.

Here's the countries that were in the Gulf War coalition and regardless of how you feel about the Gulf War, the diplomatic and military leadership was incredibly skilled. I don't see that happening with this President.

The Allied coalition was made up of 39 countries: Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Hungary, Italy, Kuwait, Morocco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The US Department of Defense has estimated the incremental costs of the Gulf War at $61 billion, with US allies providing about $54 billion of that -- Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states covered $36 billion. Germany and Japan covered $16 billion.

[scottw]

Originally Posted by Pete F.

I would rather he built a coalition

for killing a drone?

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by scottw

for killing a drone?

for attacking the tankers, the whole world should be abandoning Iran. But if Trump took the time to build a coalition, the TDS crowd would attack him for stalling and not being decisive.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Pete F.]

Originally Posted by scottw

for killing a drone?

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

for attacking the tankers, the whole world should be abandoning Iran. But if Trump took the time to build a coalition, the TDS crowd would attack him for stalling and not being decisive.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Much like Trump's comments on Kashoggi and MBS, the UAE now says they have seen no proof that Iran was responsible. Perhaps they are concerned that Bolton is repeating the mistakes made in Iraq, but with a more powerful adversary.

Or they realize that politically the Iranian politicians cannot be seen by their citizens as losers and need to be able to claim some victory before negotiating.

What Iran has done to date is very limited, odd how they just damaged some tankers by placing limpet mines at the waterline or above and shot down a drone. Do you think they don't have the capability to do much more damage just with limpet mines? In 1971 Pakistan in one night suffered the loss of 60 thousand tons of shipping from limpet mines, that's likely why the Indian navy is in the Gulf now.

Now we get to see if Trump is capable of complicated diplomatic negotiations, I've seen little evidence so far that he is capable of being anything other than a bully.