Aye; as I was reading XT’s posts, I kept thinking of another poster who makes that same “argument” all the time (or used to, when he posted here).
I agree that this is an excellent summation of the situation; thanks for bringing it into the thread.
I saw this just as I was shutting things down for the night: The Latest: Khamenei says Iran won’t negotiate on military
In the old days, an embargo required a powerful navy; and for Iran paratroopers would need to be sent in to lay siege at its borders. Starvation would force Iranis to lick the boots of their American masters.
But in today’s world, navies and armies are unnecessary. Financial centers in the U.S. control the world economy; and continue to do Trump’s bidding. Iran can be ruined just by pushing buttons in New York.
It is the United States which is starting war with Iran, by abandoning its covenant and, more importantly, by imposing a strict embargo on the struggling country. Iran’s economy is plunging, its people suffering, … for what? So it will agree to the agreement it has already made? … and is still largely keeping despite U.S. attempts to provoke war? If Iran fires the first shot, do not blame them for a war. The U.S. is completely responsible for whatever tragedy befalls.
There WAS a solution to the “Iran problem.” A solution which was carefully negotiated by the best President of the past 50 years, was approved UNANIMOUSLY by the U.N. Security Council and, reluctantly, by Iran’s factions. (That solution may no longer be available: Iranis have learned that the solemn promise of the U.S.A. has no more value than the turds or vomit of a diseased dotard.)
If Trump’s goal is bloodshed to appease or lull his base, his strategy may make sense, but let’s take him at his word. WHY then is adopting such a stupid policy and provoking war?
Because it is NOT a stupid policy for top U.S. “allies” — or rather the evil countries with their tongues stuck up Trump’s a*o. MBS of Saudi is delighted to have the Irani Shi’ites starve, as is the despotic Netanyahu. What about the top U.S. “ally”, Putin’s Russia? Yes, Iran is Russia’s de facto ally in the Middle East but a U.S.-Iran war would be very good news for Putin, and he has probably found clever ways to niggle Trump in that direction. Iran occupies a strategic position near Russia’s border; Iran’s dependence on Russia will be very good for Putin. And any war involving America serves Russian interests.
What a stupid mess.
Relevant story about the OIC meeting in Mecca yesterday:
They’re doing their prep work.
Just a quibble here: it’s pretty obvious to me that the US (by which I mean Trump) is doing the bidding of Saudi Arabia (by which I mean, the House of Saud), using the canard of “global economic stability” (by which they mean, “our means of obtaining money”) as part of their excuse for taking action. I’m not saying the US doesn’t have some self-interest here, but really, this is Saudia Arabia getting the US to do their grunt work, because they have tons of money. And money is what rules the world. If you have money, as Saudi Arabia is demonstrating, you can rent the best military might on the planet whenever you want.
I’m not 100% sure what you’re saying here. Might I paraphrase it as follows?
MBS al-Saudi is a very powerful but evil murderous man, much like the late Saddam once was. With Arabia and Persia both major oil producers, sanctions and war are win-win for him. Trump is merely a frothing-at-the-mouth puppet, strings yanked. (MBS, Yetanyahu and especially Putin are all delighted with the Bolton appointment.)
If so, color me in agreement … with the stipulation that there other evil actors involved. I assume the CFR (or Illuminati, whatever it is) understand all this far better than I — yet are unable to act. Our democracy has literally been turned over to Alexjones, Hannity, and other crooks and clowns. I only wish there were a “New World Order” able to exert some influence.
Maybe not the best, but you can definitely rent Erik Prince’s band of merry mercenaries.
I really dislike that jackass (and everything he stands for).
No explanation or speculation on what the change in wording means or why it happened, tho.
So the tune has now changed from
to “if they want to talk, Mike Pompeo is available”, a notion that I’m sure will further endear our shithead president to them.
I’m sure [url=]this news is going to calm everything down :rolleyes::
No preconditions, except that the US has no intention of stopping what the US is doing.
That’s some awesome negotiating tactics there, eh.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/state-department-support-iran-war-social-media-attack
The State Dept funded social media attacks on Iranian-American anti-war advocates. They stopped at some point, presumably when the details of what they were funding were publicized (or about to be publicized), by my reading.
Not surprising, but still disgusting.
There’s an excellent article on Lawfare published yesterday called One Year Into Trump’s Iran Strategy: Where Do Things Stand?
It’s fairly comprehensive, detailing the 12 points that Trumpompeo (sorry; I couldn’t resist) demanded of Iran, the 3 areas/types of pressures applied and then tries to assess whether or not the desired results are being achieved.
I highly recommend this article if you are at all concerned or are simply trying to educate yourself on the situation.
Iran replies:
You cannot expect peace while applying maximum pressure. Maximum pressure is intended to undermine a regime’s economic stability. There is nothing “peaceful” about crippling another country’s economy. It’s a direct threat to their ability to govern. So let’s just call this what it is and call it a pretext to war.
Aye; that’s been my point in creating this thread all along: to watch as the current administration manufactures & prosecutes a war with Iran. I’m sorry if that wasn’t clear. 
There was some posturing yesterday in Iran because Japanese PM Abe was there for trade talks. Abe cautioned that violence could erupt because of “an accident” and Iran again wagged their finger at the US to back off.
TODAY, however, we have this: Tankers targeted near Strait of Hormuz amid Iran-US tensions
The Ayatollah appears not to understand violence or the concept that the winners get to write the history books:
:dubious::rolleyes:
"All 21 of its crew members were forced to abandon ship and were picked up by a nearby Dutch-flagged tugboat, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement said in a statement.
One person suffered minor injuries, but the ship’s cargo of methanol was intact and the Kokuka Courageous was not in danger of sinking, according to vessel’s management firm.
Thursday’s incident came as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was wrapping up a two-day trip to Iran on a mission to ease tensions between Washington and Tehran.
Noting that Abe’s visit coincided with attacks on “Japan-related tankers,” Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted that “suspicious doesn’t begin to describe what likely transpired this morning.”