Tag: Trump warmongering

Journalist Mehdi Hasan on Trump’s Iran warmongering: ‘What kind of maniac risks such a war in the middle of a global pandemic?’

AlterNet logoThe Iranian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday called for an immediate halt to “warmongering during the coronavirus outbreak” as U.S. forces reportedly deployed Patriot missiles to Iraq and President Donald Trump warned—without presenting a shred of evidence—that Tehran is planning a “sneak attack” on American troops in the region.

Warning that heightened U.S. military activity in Iraq could lead to further “instability and disaster” in the Middle East, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the Trump administration should “respect the wishes of the Iraqi people and government and leave the country.” The Pentagon insisted in a statement that the Patriot missiles were mobilized for purely defensive purposes.

As Common Dreams reported, Trump on Wednesday threatened Iran with a “very heavy price” if it attacks “U.S. troops and/or assets” in the region, ignoring pleas from advocacy groups and the United Nations for a global ceasefire and international cooperation against the novel coronavirus, which has devastated the U.S. and Iran and is spreading quickly in Iraq. Continue reading.

Trump threatens Iran over embassy incident, which he calls the ‘Anti-Benghazi’

The Hill logoPresident Trump threatened Iran after demonstrators, including members of an Iranian-backed militia, breached the walls of the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad on Tuesday.

“Iran will be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities,” Trump tweeted. “They will pay a very BIG PRICE! This is not a Warning, it is a Threat. Happy New Year!”

Trump declared that the embassy in Iraq was safe thanks to the deployment of U.S. military resources and a “rapid response” from the Iraqi government. Continue reading

House approves amendment seeking to block Trump from taking military action against Iran

The Hill logoThe House on Friday voted 251-170 to approve an amendment intended to block President Trump from taking military action against Iran.

The amendment would prohibit funding U.S. military action against Iran unless Congress has declared war or enacted another specific statutory authorization.

Some Republicans broke rank to support it, including vocal Trump ally Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who co-sponsored the amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Twenty-seven Republicans sided with Democrats to support the amendment, while seven Democrats voted against it.

View the complete July 12 article by Rebecca Kheel on The Hill website here.

Trump sets new red line, threatening Iran with “obliteration”

Axios logoPresident Trump tweeted on Tuesday that any “attack by Iran on anything American will be met with great and overwhelming force.”

Why it matters: It’s a new red line for Trump in the latest round of heightened tensions with Iran. The president previously called off a military strike in response to the downing of a U.S. drone, claiming the death toll would be disproportionate. His tweet on Tuesday strikes a markedly new tone.

“Iran leadership doesn’t understand the words “nice” or “compassion,” they never have. Sadly, the thing they do understand is Strength and Power, and the USA is by far the most powerful Military Force in the world, with 1.5 Trillion Dollars invested over the last two years alone. The wonderful Iranian people are suffering, and for no reason at all. Their leadership spends all of its money on Terror, and little on anything else. The U.S. has not forgotten Iran’s use of IED’s & EFP’s (bombs), which killed 2000 Americans, and wounded many more. Iran’s very ignorant and insulting statement, put out today, only shows that they do not understand reality. Any attack by Iran on anything American will be met with great and overwhelming force. In some areas, overwhelming will mean obliteration. No more John Kerry & Obama!”

View the complete June 25 article on the Axios website here.

Trump to send 1,000 troops to Middle East as Iran tensions escalate

The U.S. is deploying an additional 1,000 troops to the Middle East in response to “hostile behavior by Iranian forces and their proxy groups” that threaten U.S. “personnel and interests,” acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan announced Monday.

The backdrop: The U.S.-Iran standoff is reaching uncharted waters. As the Trump administration scrambles to rally an international response to Iran’s alleged covert attacks last week, Tehran is taking a long-feared step in broad daylight — announcing it will breach the 2015 nuclear deal’s limits on enriched uranium in 10 day’s time.

  • Shanahan said the U.S. isn’t seeking “conflict” with Iran, but would “make adjustments to force levels as necessary given intelligence reporting and credible threats.”
  • Meanwhile, the Pentagon tonight released additional photos it says indicate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps was behind attacks on two oil tankers last week.
  • While the U.K., Saudi Arabia and Israel have backed the administration’s assessment, domestic critics and some U.S. allies — including Germany and Japan — have demanded more evidence

View the complete June 17 article by Dave Lawler on the Axios website here.

Trump rails against Iran. But who’s listening?

Tensions between Iran and the United States continued to build over the weekend. President Trump and his lieutenants accused the regime in Tehran of launching attacks on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman last week, pointing to apparent video evidence of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard removing an unexploded mine from one of the targeted ships. “It’s probably got essentially Iran written all over it,” Trump said in his distinct syntax on Friday.

Appearing on television on Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Iran’s culpability in the affair was “unmistakable” and urged the world “to unite against this threat from this Islamic Republic.” A coterie of Washington hawks — in Congress and in the opinion pages of major newspapers — floated the possibility of retaliatory military strikes against Iranian naval targets, an eventuality Trump is supposedly eager to avoid.

Iran denies any involvement in the attack. The situation in the Middle East will occupy a morning sessionat the U.N. Security Council on Monday. But for all the Trump administration’s certainty and ire, the international response to the developments, with the exception of a handful of countries, has been rather muted.

View the complete June 17 article by Ishaan Tharoor on The Washington Post website here.

Japanese ship owner contradicts U.S. account of how tanker was attacked

TOKYO — The owner of a Japanese tanker attacked in the Gulf of Oman offered a different account Friday of the nature of the attack than that provided by the United States.

Yutaka Katada, president of the Kokuka Sangyo shipping company, said the Filipino crew of the Kokuka Courageous tanker thought their vessel was hit by flying objects rather than a mine.

“The crew are saying it was hit with a flying object. They say something came flying toward them, then there was an explosion, then there was a hole in the vessel,” he told reporters. “Then some crew witnessed a second shot.”

View the complete June 14 article by Simon Denyer and Carol Morello on The Washington Post website here.

Pompeo blames Iran for attacks on oil tankers

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday accused Iran of being responsible for attacks on oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz and a string of other incidents, saying the regime was engaged in “an unacceptable campaign of escalating tensions.”

Why it matters: Fears that the U.S. was on course for war with Iran had been reduced in recent days, with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe traveling to Tehran on a Trump-endorsed mission to reduce tensions. But Pompeo’s tone was hawkish today in declaring Iran “a clear threat to international peace and security.”

  • Pompeo did not present any evidence that Iran was responsible, but said that the U.S. would raise the attacks at the UN Security Council today.
  • Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, denied responsibility for the attacks and said the timing was “”suspicious.” Meanwhile Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, told Abe that Iran would not engage in negotiations with President Trump.

View the complete June 13 article by Dave Lawler and Orion Rummler on the Axios website here.

‘This is big’: 76 retired US generals and diplomats warn Trump against war with Iran

President Donald Trump often says he listens to military generals more than anyone else, and, as the White House prepares to send 1,500 soldiers to the Middle East, that claim is being tested by a Friday letter from the American College of National Security Leaders.

The letter, which is signed by 76 retired generals, admirals, ambassadors, and diplomats, was published Friday morning by War on the Rocks. The letter asks the administration not to pursue war with Iran, mainly for strategic reasons.

“A war with Iran, either by choice or miscalculation, would produce dramatic repercussions in an already destabilized Middle East,” reads the letter, “and drag the United States into another armed conflict at immense financial, human, and geopolitical cost.”

View the complete May 25 article by Eoin Higgins from Common Dreams on the AlterNet website.