I woke to this headline. How did it come to this? As US politicians from both major parties urged Donald Trump to escalate tensions between the countries, a commander of Iran’s highly-trained Revolutionary Guards warned that Tehran was prepared for any conflict that may arise. “We are on the cusp of a full-scale confrontation with the enemy,” said Maj Gen Hossein Salami, who was named head of the force last month. The comments came after several days of mounting tension between the two countries, with the US sending additional troops and equipment to the region. It has done so amid claims US and coalition troops in Iraq and Syria that are fighting the remnants of Isis are at increased risk from Iran, or Iranian backed militias. Is this the real thing or simply sabre rattling?
John Bolton (National Security Adviser) is doing the urging. He has always favored regime change in the Middle East. Big supporter of the Iraq War. He and Mr. Trump are playing "good cop, bad cop." What could go wrong.
My son says America has to have war for economic reasons. Seems an odd and extremely inhumane way to maintain your place in the world order.
The US state department has ordered the departure of "non-emergency employees" from Iraq, amid rising tensions between the US and Iraq's neighbour Iran. Staff at the embassy in Baghdad and the consulate in Irbil must leave as soon as possible on commercial transport. Meanwhile, the German and Dutch armies have suspended training Iraqi soldiers.
Trump has put America's allies in a unenviable position over his Iran posturing. In the event of confrontation he will call on the likes of Germany, France and the UK for the usual coalition. With those countries remaining with the original nuclear deal and offside with the US will they also take up arms against Iran? Personally for the sake of mankind.. we need America and Iran to go it alone. Having said that, I can not see Russia sitting on the sidelines.
What we Westerners here have no real grasp of is just how squalid the existence really is for the average Iranian. Frank
At the moment, it doesn't appear to be headed toward a ground war. What has been moved into the area are B-52s and a carrier group. Reagan did a similar thing when he had all the tankers fly American flags, so the Iranians were not sure what was happening. Reagan also flattened Qaddafi's compound. I think a Libya-style attack may be what Trump is contemplating.
I see Iran has being much more formidable opponent than either Iraq or Libya. The Iranian Revolutioinary Guard alone has 120K troops under arms and that is a mere corp of the Iranian Army. Do you think their powerful ally Russia will just allow America to walz into Tehran? In addition, their spiritual leader Khomeni will stir up the people to fever pitch. This is not looking good.
You mean due to the crippling sanctions. These sanctions could well have pushed this rogue regime too far.
Again I think it may be a one and out strike against the homes of the ayatollahs, not a war on the ground or invasion.
I doubt there will be an all-out war against Iran. Important when there is a foreign dispute with an unfriendly country is a show of force, or implied threats, as these have worked in the past. A complicating factor today is the knowledge that at least half of the US government will be rooting for Iran, and some of them will likely take steps to work against the interests of the United States. That knowledge could take what would otherwise be a show of force, and bring it into an actual confrontation.