None of Trump's Iran Policy Makes Sense. All of It Is Dangerous
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s speech on Wednesday about Iran’s retaliatory missile strikes on two U.S. bases could be read in any number of ways. The mainstream papers will run with the raw news it contained: no American or Iraqi casualties from the attack, more economic sanctions on Iran, and that Iran “appears to be standing down.”
But Trump’s 15-minute speech was also a glimpse into the addled mind of a commander-in-chief with no set of guiding principles and no clear idea where he wants to take the country and why. His speech was contradictory and discordant, a mish-mash of chest-beating, dodgy history, Pentagon-humping, and empty calls for peace.
He seemed to crib from that famous Vietnam War-era maxim — we must destroy the village in order to save it — when he brought up Iran’s nuclear ambitions and the nonproliferation deal reached by the Obama administration and the Iranian government in 2015. Known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, the deal lifted some economic sanctions on Iran if the country agreed to limit its development of nuclear weapons material.
In his speech, Trump savaged the Iran nuclear deal as “very defective” while saying that it
“expires shortly anyway and gives Iran a clear and quick path to nuclear breakout.” But in the same breath, he called on the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia, and China — all signatories to the deal — work together to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. “They must now break away from the remnants of the Iran deal,” he said. “We must all work together toward making a deal with Iran that makes the world a safer and more peaceful place.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-iran-speech-madman-theory-935117/
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