America's spies say Iran wasn't building a nuclear weapon. Trump dismisses that assessment
America's spies say Iran wasn't building a nuclear weapon. Trump dismisses that assessment
Trump's national intelligence director, Tulsi Gabbard, told Congress in March that Iran's supreme leader had not reauthorized the dormant program.
Tulsi Gabbard left no doubt when she testified to Congress about Iran’s nuclear program earlier this year.
The country was not building a nuclear weapon, the national intelligence director told lawmakers, and its supreme leader had not reauthorized the dormant program even though it had enriched uranium to higher levels.
But Donald Trump dismissed the assessment of U.S. spy agencies during an overnight flight back to Washington as he cut short his trip to the Group of Seven summit to focus on the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran.
“I don’t care what she said,” Trump told reporters. In his view, Iran was “very close” to having a nuclear bomb.
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This whole thing still has me scratching my head.
Such a large portion of the West gets a raging boner about coming to Israel's aide. I get it from the strange doomsday cult belief where something about Israel at war triggers the rapture or some shit. But I don't really believe that's what the western world leaders actually believe.
Trump has his own reality, and only a divine entity understands what's going on in the space between his ears.
Ignoring Trump and the doomsday cult thing, the other things I can think of:
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US and Europe want an established western sympathizing military power in the middle-east. Some sort of remnant of the Cold war.
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US and Europe want a military western sympathizing military power with close proximity to the Suez Canal and red Sea, as well as the Mediterranean.
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The "Sampson Option" that Israel has is completely legitimate and Israel is ready to obliterate everyone if they don't get their way.
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There's some economic or strategic value the West won't acknowledge.
Even with all that, attack Iran? Iran is not remotely similar to Iraq. Iran will put up much more of a fight. It also won't be a "forever war" like fascists dream about.
Because the fatwa declares: "Israel has a right to defend itself". Denying it is haram, and infidels must be punished.
At a certain point, it stops being about enforcing the fatwa, and becomes about defending your right to declare fatwas.
Using Islamic terminology to describe the driving force of a Christian nationalist coming to the aid of Jewish Zionists to fight an Islamic Hegemony has my head hurting in new ways.
It's really not that complicated. Trump is a bully and loves piling on to prove he's the alpha male. But he's also a coward (like many bullies) and is afraid to wade into something that will spiral out of control. So he's trying to subjugate the government of Iran using threats so he can get the satisfaction of the former without the risk of the latter.
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