Pay attention to Iran.

[shockey80]

What Trump has done when it comes to Iran may go down as one of the biggest mistakes in our history. Trump has been very lucky so far. That could change quickly. The crazy hardliners could take over the government in Iran and then we will be on the path to war.

Trump ripped up the deal Obama made with Iran. Now he is putting in place the same sanctions on Iran that led to the deal. He is backstabbing Iran. I am not defending Iran, I am just saying they did not break the deal, Trump did. That could lead to war.

[secondwind]

1. Trump's newest BFF, MSB would not be unhappy about that. This is absurd, so dangerous, and

so infuriating!

We need to take our country back, fast!

[Hortensis]

17. How about Iran's ally, Russia? We had been engaged in

a proxy war against Iran + Syria (related religion) and Russia. Now, Trump is trying to form a mid-east NATO to war on Iran and Russian "oil firm Zarubezhneft has pulled out of joint projects in Iran on the eve of the US upping its sanctions against the Middle East state as Donald Trump warned "sanctions are coming." They were planned to take effect in November, and here we are.

Btw, not all atrocities being committed involve kidnapping terrified children or starving or bombing them. For instance, from The Atlantic:

But it’s only part of the cost. America’s cold-war posture is also terrible for the people of Iran. According to a 2016 study in the journal Global Health, American sanctions—which have prevented Iran from importing prescription drugs or the raw materials to make them—have left 6 million Iranians “without access to essential treatment.”

The architect of those sanctions is Barack Obama, who from 2010 to 2012, in coordination with America’s European allies, made it almost impossible for Iranian companies to import from or export to the West or transfer money through Western banks. Obama, however, saw those sanctions as a short-term gambit to convince Tehran to sign a nuclear deal. Once the deal was signed, he began lifting them.

Until we failed to keep control out of the hands of what today's Republicans have become and they turned them to evil purposes. We, the voters, have the same, absolute duty we did in 2016: to put good people in power and keep evil people out of power. It's not all about single payer or some other small focus as our world threatens to collapse around us.

[BaileyBill]

2. What is scarier to me is that many countries (UK, France,

Russia, China, etc.) are exploring ways to trade with Iran without using dollars. If the dollar is replaced as global currency, we are well and truly screwed.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-03/the-tyranny-of-the-u-s-dollar

[Tiggeroshii]

7. Has there been any reason to believe the dollar could become a world

Currency?

[Xolodno]

9. For international trade transactions...

...the dollar is used for transaction, financial reporting, etc.

It was the result after World War II left the rest of the worlds economies in tatters. John Maynard Keynes had the idea of using a global currency that wasn't in print and only used to facilitate trade between nations. But that idea, mostly by the US was torpedoed.

The US had a lot of influence to gain in international transactions, sanctions, trade, etc. for being the currency of choice. Its why when we slap sanctions, we can often force other nations to do so as well, or make it particularly difficult.

If the dollar is replaced or other competing currencies rise, we lose lots of leverage at the negotiating table in trade, banking laws, influence, etc. It also makes government borrowing more difficult as the US dollar is in less demand.

[Blue_true]

11. The dollar is the world's reserve currency.

That status allows us to be less concerned about deficits and debt. If Iran, China, Russia, Europe (Germany, France, Great Britain), decide to use the Euro or British Pound as their reserve currency, they would immediately halve our worldwide economic power if they make that currency stick as a reserve.

My belief, they take a couple more years to finalize something, we get rid of Trump and a sane US President comes in and convince them to retain the US dollar as the reserve currency.

[AJT]

3. A war with Iran would be a dream come true for the

hardliners in the US......a new Crusade.

[LuvNewcastle]

5. They've wanted a war with Iran for a long time.

That's why they were so pissed about Obama's deal with Iran. I'd rather be friends with Iran than Saudi Arabia, myself, but I'm not a whore for the House of Saud.

[Blue_true]

12. Such a war would be a logistical nightmare for us.

We could hit them with missiles, but bombers would need to be concentrated in Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Gulf. The other option is hundreds of miles flying over hostile territory.

Bibi has orgasms over Israeli fighter jets attacking Iran, but given the influence Iran has in Iraq, the Israeli Air Force would have to knock out and keep out Iraqi air defenses.

[AJT]

16. Well, no one those war mongers know will be serving,

so bombs away.

[CharleyDog]

4. troomp is doing this to provoke Iran into hostility

troomp and Bolten would love a war. "we need a war, man"

guard your sons and daughters, don't let them go to more needless war

[Blue_true]

13. A war with Iran likely would be very difficult for us.

The logistics for the US are problematic.

[librechik]

6. I wonder if Iran is the reason for the creepy GOT "SANCTIONS are COMING" tweet.

That would be so unserious and unstatesmanlike that it is probably true.

[karynnj]

8. It is a huge mistake for the world, but might be just what Trump, MBS and BiBi want

The Iran deal successfully was insuring Iran did not move towards getting a nuclear bomb. Even now, Iran has not violated that agreement.

It is also clear - most clearly reading some Israeli news sources, that Trump's middle east policy has been to create a Sunni state, Israel, US coalition against Iran. Netanyahu has spoken about how the Sunni states appreciate their technical abilities and he has suggested that fighting Iran is more important to the Sunni states than the treatment of Palestinians. Additionally, Isreal sees Iran as an existential threat -- and the Iranian hardliners regularly verbally calling for the end of Israel is part of why this is the belief of the majority of Israelis.

With MBS and MBZ, it is a quest of increased power in the region. Their repeted attacks on Iran as the top state sponsor of terror ignores that they both represent countries that were the source of a huge amount of terrorism - including both 911 and ISIS - both stemming from extreme Sunni religion. (MBS finessed this by saying that SA moved to support that branch of Sunnism because Iran moved to fundamentalism and SA was challenged with not being religious enough to control Mecca -- so it's Iran's fault! Not very convincing to me. )

Trump has clearly pushed Iran to take steps in anger -- and so far they haven't. The danger of this step is two fold.

It is an action against our allies in Europe, telling them they will punish their companies by blocking them from business in the US if they - as is consistent with THEIR countries' foreign policies, buy or sell to Iran. They risk those countries building an alternative path to using the US dominated SWIFT system. For those countries, they are being faced with a terrible choice - cede their foreign policy to President Trump on an issue they absolutely disagree with him on OR implement the discussed policies to indemnity the European companies affected. At this point, many contracts have already been terminated.

It also is an action that hurts people like Rouhani and Zarif, who trusted the US in the 2 and a half years of negotiations. Though neither are Jeffersonian democrats, they represent the most moderate faction in Iran. (No matter what MEK, previously designated by the US as a terrorist group, but with paid American advocates including Howard Dean and Guiliani, says. The risk is that there is instability -- and the likely result - especially given the US action -- is that the hard line becomes stronger. This also means that Iran would pull out of the deal and -- likely within days, MBS, MBZ, BiBi and Trump will be leading a run up to war with a country bigger and more homogeneous than Iraq. ( Kerry and other Obama people have spoken of the many times the same countries pushed Obama to attack Iran.)

Scarier still, bombing evil Iran - with his buddies MBS and Netanyahu cheering him on -- might not be seen as a negative by Trump. He wants to be the opposite of Obama.

[Blue_true]

14. One problem.

If the Gulf States are seen as cooperating with Israel and sacrificing Palestinians, that will cause an explosion within the populations of those Gulf States, some could fall into civil war, if not that, extensive homegrown terror that destabilizes those countries. We are setting up for another Shah of Iran situation, except Petro Princes and Kings will be overthrown and we will have millions of militants wanting to drain American blood.

[Xolodno]

10. War with Iran will make Iraq and Afghanistan look like a picnic.

None of our allies will go along with it and you can bet Iran will get plenty of arms from its neighbor to the north.

This won't be a 1960's equipped army with demoralized troops like Iraq. But like our mis-steps in Iraq that unified the Sunni's, this would unify Iran completely.

[Blue_true]

15. I agree.

Not only will it unify Iran, it will completely destabilize every country in the region.

[JonLP24]

19. Iraq was a picnic compared to Afghanistan

I was there in Iraq and it was no cake walk not by a long shot but Afghanistan where I never been but talked to people I deployed with in Iraq that later deployed to Afghanistan which was way worse. A lot more complex attacks. The country has been in a civil war since the late 70s.

The equipment improved from OIF 1, to OIF 2 & 3 and I'm sure after I left. SOP changed constantly.

[JonLP24]

18. As someone noted

Don't forget about the hardliners who are so ignorant in the US who will never stand up to Saudi Arabia.