That wasn’t my point. The President drew a bright line and retaliated with force when that line was crossed, but apparently he didn’t clearly communicate the threat beforehand. Obviously it is bad for Iran to kill Americans, but it would appear our President missed an opportunity to use our military strength as a deterrent.
In other words, Mr. Trump’s actions here is what one would call reactive foreign policy. There was a chance to be proactive with traditional brinkmanship. I can’t say that the bright red line approach would have prevented Mr. Hamid’s death, but it definitely could have. And if the Iranians killed an American after the public threat, hawks would have their cassus belli and doves could hope for an Obama-style diplomatic offramp.
IMHO, Trump didn’t announce his line in the sand because he didn’t want it to become a point of public debate. He’s so thin-skinned, so adverse to anything but fulsome praise of his position and actions, that the possible deterrent effect of announcing his line in the sand was outweighed in his [del]gut[/del] mind by the horrible trauma he’d experience of Congressmen and pundits discussing the merits of his position and possibly not agreeing with it. :rolleyes:
Either that, or he just didn’t think it through. It’s easy to become convinced that what’s evident to us is just as evident to everyone else - even when it’s utterly silly. “I just made up my mind, so that’s settled [and no need to communicate it to anyone] [also I’ll get pissed off when the world acts as if I hadn’t communicated my decision]” is stupendously common. Ask any married couple.
Well, my wife has never directly told me not to sleep with her sister. A “red line” if you will. So if I do, and she files for divorce, I guess I’ll tell the judge that it is her fault for having poor communication skills.
Christ, is it official US policy that if a US citizen is killed abroad we’re going to conduct revenge executions? If so, that’s fucked, regardless of whether or not we announce it first. Can’t believe this is the discussion we’re having.
I fortunately have zero desire to screw my Trampster SIL. Meanwhile, this assassination thing is obviously a wag-the-dog diversion. That’s what we should discuss. Tramp took this belligerent step because he fears exposure, removal, and imprisonment. The next step will be more tragic.
But, if your wife were to actually murder you for sleeping with her sister, she should have given you fair warning that she would do that.
There’s a difference between tit-for-tat and escalation. Your wife divorcing you for infidelity? Yeah, that’s proportional, should be expected. Your wife committing mariticide? That should be warned.
Is this ANY country, or only the ones that some have been clamoring to “Bomb! Bomb!” for years? Because a Saudi soldier killed three Americans on US soil just a couple months ago.
Given that they’re all going home, including the ones with extremist ties, this can’t be considered an actual policy.
If an almighty deity wanted to send a clear message to Earthlings, I’d expect it inscribed across the face of Luna so all would notice. If a POTUS is to show their might, delivering a single drone strike in a land the US occupies looks pretty wimpish. Tehran, Pyongyang, Caracas, and San Francisco aren’t yet radioactive ruins. Dissidents haven’t been rounded up. Rivers haven’t caught fire. C’mon, do something! (On second thought, don’t.) :eek:
Every US military officer and civilian contractor worldwide should quiver in fear or change careers - now they’re openly Iranian targets. Will the Pentagon swamp be drained?
11 US service members were indeed injured by the Iranian rocket attack and evacuated to hospitals in Europe. So, not surprisingly, the administration lied again when they said no casualties. So not only had Trump needlessly inflamed tensions with Iran due to a possible illegal assassination, he also gets 11 troops injured.
OK, but other than the President, Vice President, Attorney General, the Pentagon, Chief of Staff, Commerce Secretary, NOAA, Treasury Secretary, and Secretary of State, who from this administration has lied to the American people in an easily verifiable way?
I’m sure the undersecretary for some department has been honest and forthcoming with us, his employers!
