June 20, 2019: President Trump Decides to Attack Iran - Then Changes His Mind

 

6/20/19: The threat of war with Iran grows after Iran shoots down a $130 million U.S. drone. 

President Trump loves to bluster. Now he must puzzle out what to do. He talks to National Security Adviser John Bolton, a man who has never seen a Middle Eastern country he didn’t want to bomb. Bolton urges Trump to rain down destruction. 

Administration officials tell The New York Times that the president’s national security team is unanimous in favoring a limited strike against Iranian radar facilities and missile batteries. 

Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warns that escalation may have unforeseen and dangerous results. 

Trump decides to attack!

 

Planes are on the wing. Ships move into strike position. Then, with ten minutes to spare, Trump decides he should really, really think about what “General” Tucker Carlson has said. The Fox News general warns that if Trump goes to war with Iran, he will never be re-elected. 

That clinches it. Trump aborts the mission and wastes millions of dollars of taxpayer money just for fun.

Bombers were on the way to Iran when Trump called them back.

 

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A BIPARTISAN BILL in the U.S. House of Representatives has been introduced. (You thought Congress could never get anything done!) The bill would require cellphone carriers to offer screening and call-blocking technology to customers, free of charge, within 18 months of the bill’s enactment. 

In May, alone, Americans received an estimated five billion robocalls from scammers and telemarketers. 

If the House and Senate can get a bill worked out and passed into law, it may boost the average approval rating of Congress at last. 

That average currently stands at 19.4%. The last time it was as high as 30% was August 29, 2009.

 

 

POSTSCRIPT: Trump later defends his change of mind, regarding the attack on Iran, saying he was not told till the last minute that the attack might kill 150 Iranians. He said the toll would be too high. He didn’t want to kill 150 people. 

(Several military experts say there’s no way the president wasn’t told about the toll up front in any planning session.) 

Then again, this president loves to talk loudly and wave his Big Stick. First, he tweets to all his fans, assuring them the U.S. was “cocked and loaded” and could have attacked if he really wanted. 

Trump was trying to have it two ways. First, he wanted to take credit for caring about Iranian lives. 

Still, he was one tough hombre, ready to kick Iranian ass.

 

General Carlson, however, was perfectly clear about what had swayed Trump. On his Friday night show, Carlson explained: “Bombing Iran would have ended his political career in a minute [emphasis added]. There would be no chance of reelection after that.” In other words, Trump would happily have killed plenty of Iranians if he thought it would make him look good. 

It was poll numbers, not numbers of dead, that convinced him to abort the attack. (See: 6/23/19.)