Is the Trump administration readying war plans against Iran? Somebody certainly wants us to think so.
The ongoing internal drama over Iran policy demonstrates how ill-equipped Trump is for the job of president.
If you were trying to design a policy that had a high probability of inciting some tit-for-tat escalation leading to war, the Trump administration's approach to Iran is what you would end up with.
The question is, why? Iran has complied with the strict limitations on its nuclear program under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a deal Trump may want to improve upon but, thanks to his withdrawal from it, can't.
So why risk a war with Iran that would be orders of magnitude costlier than the war in Iraq, and would fail just as miserably? The answer is that Trump's war hawks, and most of the political establishment in Washington, perceive the threat from Iran to be serious when in fact it hardly exists at all.
Threat perceptions on Iran are fueled by an outdated enemy image where Iran plays the role of the villain, but presents no objective direct threat to this country.
The president's political calculations, along with a national-security bureaucracy that mostly appears resistant to another disastrous U.S. war in the Middle East, make a deliberate attack against Iran unlikely.
https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/how-donald-trump-may-push-america-war-iran
The ongoing internal drama over Iran policy demonstrates how ill-equipped Trump is for the job of president.
If you were trying to design a policy that had a high probability of inciting some tit-for-tat escalation leading to war, the Trump administration's approach to Iran is what you would end up with.
The question is, why? Iran has complied with the strict limitations on its nuclear program under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a deal Trump may want to improve upon but, thanks to his withdrawal from it, can't.
So why risk a war with Iran that would be orders of magnitude costlier than the war in Iraq, and would fail just as miserably? The answer is that Trump's war hawks, and most of the political establishment in Washington, perceive the threat from Iran to be serious when in fact it hardly exists at all.
Threat perceptions on Iran are fueled by an outdated enemy image where Iran plays the role of the villain, but presents no objective direct threat to this country.
The president's political calculations, along with a national-security bureaucracy that mostly appears resistant to another disastrous U.S. war in the Middle East, make a deliberate attack against Iran unlikely.
https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/how-donald-trump-may-push-america-war-iran
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