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In hindsight, Iraq was a mistake but you had Saddam yapping about his WMD's and that could not be taken lightly. He was butchering his own people and had to be taken out, but it did cause instability in the region. There was no easy solution.
Iran is a little different in that they are attacking oil tankers coming through the Straights of Hormuz. Our troops are there to protect American interests and nobody wants a war, especially the President. The mullahs don't want a war either, but they love to talk tough. The sanctions against Iran are choking them, but they're resistant to go along with the program and are getting what they deserve.
Obama was a fool to believe that giving them $1.5 billion would buy their cooperation.
If we are going to invade every country that has WMD's and kill their own people we will need to increase the size of our military. The world would be a much safer place if we never invaded Iraq.
I will wait to hear that Iran is attacking oil freighters other than Pompeo or Bolton before I call that a fact. What exactly are "American Interests" other than an excuse to go to war.
The right wing in the US and Iran want this badly but I've got news for you, no one in the US wants a war with Iran other than Trumps inner circle. His policy to tear up the agreement was poorly thought out and put us in a downward spiral inching towards a confrontation, He has failed.
The tanker attack was a message: attack Iran and the Straits of Hormuz will close. Fixing that militarily will take a sizeable US force deployment to the Middle East (two+ corps perhaps?) and probably a sea invasion, taking possibly a couple of years or more to resolve. The loss of oil could eventually put the world economy into a nose-dive.
Unless we're willing to occupy their entire country, we may or may not stop the Iranian nuclear program -- it would be a gamble. There's the possibility that Russia and China will likely supply the Iranians with weapons, further extending the war. Meanwhile, there is little support for such a conflict in the U.S., and anti-war protests could spread widely. Trump could thereby declare an emergency, granting him new despotic powers.
How far do we want to take this inane anti-Iranian crusade of Trump's?
U.S. General: American troops face imminent threat from Iran
Here's an idea ... how about we get American troops out of harms way and let the Saudi's deal with Iran mano-a-mano ? Shiites and Sunnis have been in hot wars and cold wars for essentially more than 1,000 years and there is no resolution in sight. Why is this our problem?
Why not simply allow Israel. They are God's chosen people so obviously they will be protected. I find it odd that we seem to think that God couldn't do this without the U.S. (For the record, my statement is tinged in sarcasm)
In hindsight, Iraq was a mistake but you had Saddam yapping about his WMD's and that could not be taken lightly. He was butchering his own people and had to be taken out, but it did cause instability in the region. There was no easy solution.
We butchered his own people. How is that better? The fact is, Saddam was faced with fighting the very same people we fought after going in. Saddam had no choice but put on a face of bravado.
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Iran is a little different in that they are attacking oil tankers coming through the Straights of Hormuz. Our troops are there to protect American interests and nobody wants a war, especially the President. The mullahs don't want a war either, but they love to talk tough. The sanctions against Iran are choking them, but they're resistant to go along with the program and are getting what they deserve.
Obama was a fool to believe that giving them $1.5 billion would buy their cooperation.
It was their money to start with. There is no actual facts that they attacked anything but there is plenty of facts that show we will lie to start wars.
Agreed, nearly every decision we have made in the ME has come back bite us.
1. Giving Iraq weapons to fight Iran
2. Arming the Taliban to resist Russia in Afghanistan
3. Giving Iran a nuclear reactor in 1967
4. Installing the Shah of Iran as a puppet of the CIA against the will of the people
5. Invading Iraq to remove the non-threat Saddam, opening the door for disaffected Sunnis to form ISIS
6. Declaring a red line in the Syria war then failing to enforce it, allowing Russia to take over the situation
These failures have been under both D and R presidents.
The US as a rule makes terrible decisions when it comes to the ME.
Those are interesting points in history. I would like to add the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979-1980. Last night, I watched a documentary about a declassified CIA escape plan to rescue Americans hiding out in the Canadian Embassy during that crisis. They posed as Hollywood movie producers "checking out a filming sight" and actually pulled it off. It was amazing that the CIA could get that tricky. It contrasts the failed helicopter rescue crash later that year. The failure was big news back then and dominated the media of the time (mainly network TV news before cable/internet). But I had not know about the CIA trick to scuttle those Americans through the airport with fake IDs and passports. The Canadian involvement was known and appreciated by the American public, but the CIA involvement was classified for years. I only found out from watching that documentary.
The CIA is likely pulling massive overtime at the moment with modern data acquisition techniques. I hope there is not another major indicent like 1979 (or worse). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Caper
This presumes that America's intentions in the region have been done in goodwill. Its actually quite the opposite. After WW2 Arab nationalism surged and the various Arab nations begin entertaining the idea of unifying into one united secular country. Had this happened it would have created a new world power that would have challenge the bipolar power balance of the US and the USSR. Thus America's underlying goal in the Middle East has been to sew chaos whenever possible and to thus insure nobody in the region acquires to much influence. When the Iranians depict America as being "The Great Satan" there is degree of actually to it. Satan signifies "chaos" and that is what America has been doing in the Middle East since the start of the post war period.
My love of securalism is stronger than my love of country. I can't help but notice the U.S consistently takes action to make the Middle East less secular and more Islamic.
And you think those of us who've been in the Military or are in the Military signed up for a free ride to sit around and drink Mai Tai's? Our expectations are to be sent somewhere where needed around the world.
WE don’t need to go into Iran.
If Israel and their new found pals, the Saudis feel threatened by Iran, they can deal with Iran themselves.
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