President Donald Trump reportedly called off an air strike on Iran because he believed the humanitarian costs would be too high, sparing the lives of at least 150 individuals with his decision.
Trump announced what happened in a series of tweets today.
….On Monday they shot down an unmanned drone flying in International Waters. We were cocked & loaded to retaliate last night on 3 different sights when I asked, how many will die. 150 people, sir, was the answer from a General. 10 minutes before the strike I stopped it, not….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 21, 2019
….proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone. I am in no hurry, our Military is rebuilt, new, and ready to go, by far the best in the world. Sanctions are biting & more added last night. Iran can NEVER have Nuclear Weapons, not against the USA, and not against the WORLD!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 21, 2019
It was reported last night by the mainstream media that Trump had second thoughts after initially ordering the attack on Iran in response to the Islamic Republic shooting down a U.S. drone in or around their airspace.
Trump had reached out to the Iranians before making his final determination on whether to drop bombs.
“In his message, Trump said he was against any war with Iran and wanted to talk to Tehran about various issues,” an anonymous Iranian official said to Reuters. “He gave a short period of time to get our response but Iran’s immediate response was that it is up to Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei to decide about this issue.”
A second Iranian official said: “We made it clear that the leader is against any talks, but the message will be conveyed to him to make a decision … However, we told the Omani official that any attack against Iran will have regional and international consequences.”
Hawks in the administration including national security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wanted Trump to do the air strike, but he ultimately ignored their advice.
Anti-war Fox News host Tucker Carlson is reportedly advising President Trump on Iran policy in private. He has been imploring Trump to stay out of another conflict publicly on his influential primetime TV show and in op/eds as well.
“By every measure, our foreign wars have ended in dismal failure for the United States — however noble their intentions, and some did have noble intentions. Donald Trump was one of the rare Republican politicians honest enough to admit this. He said it out loud three years ago, and promised not to repeat the same mistakes if elected president. And partly because he said that, he was elected president,” Carlson wrote in an op/ed published this morning.
“Now something fascinating is happening. The very people — in some cases, literally the same people who lured us into the Iraq quagmire 16 years ago — are demanding a new war, this one with Iran. The president, to his great credit, appears to be skeptical of this — very skeptical,” Carlson added.
“None of these people will admit their actual intentions. They’ll tell you they don’t really want to war with Iran. That’s a crock. They want a war badly, badly enough to lie about it. That’s why they’re putting American troops into situations where conflict is inevitable in order to start a war,” he wrote.
Trump has avoided escalating conflict this time, but the military-industrial complex is hardly done scheming. They will continue to make provocative moves with the hopes that Trump will eventually bomb Iran, leading into a full-scale invasion and another trillion-dollar disaster in the Middle East.
