President Trump spoke briefly on Wednesday morning, Washington D.C. time, appearing with an assortment of military leaders, the Vice President and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The expression on the President’s face was serious, but his speech was far from the gloom and doom predicted (and desired) by much of the mainstream media outlets (including Fox News), and of course, the military-industrial complex. Trump offered a benediction of sorts to Iran and its leadership, wishing their success and wishing to help them in their success, while standing absolutely firm on the point that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.
President Trump delivered a stunning statement, clearly pointing at President Obama’s handling of the JCPoA deal as the source for the money that paid for the fifteen missiles that were fired last night at American and coalition bases in Iraq.
He did not allude to a theory that I hold, that others also hold – that Iranian missiles hit nothing of importance by design, in the same manner as Trump’s own airstrike against Syria in April of 2018. I wrote about this as possibly genius strategy here. Speculation is that Iran did the same thing because they had to put on a show of power for their internal propaganda generators, but were apparently wise enough to not hazard an attack that would really bring down hell on their own country.
Still, Iran’s internal social media efforts are jumping today, showing Iran’s move as bold and determined to force the “evil Americans” out of the region. My own limited contacts in Iran are fully on-board with this sentiment, but that is probably to be expected. What is kind of amusing and ironic is that nothing would be better for the US than to leave the region. Iraq doesn’t want the US troops there, Iran surely doesn’t, and despite the common enemy of ISIS, which the US (at least on Trump’s watch) helped defeat and destroy, it appears that the Shi’ite government of Iraq and their new friends in Iran are united in wanting the American forces out of the country.
And this is fine!
The time has long since come and gone for the US to start doing smart foreign policy. It is fair to say that foreign policy under Trump has been much different than before, but at the same time, there is still too much neo-con, war mongering influence. Nevertheless, today’s speech was the most large-scale statement saying in a comprehensive manner that the US has no need to be involved in the Middle East. The country’s energy independence means the region is no longer vital to American interests.
This statement should not be underestimated, though it certainly will be rebuked and belittled by many who say that this is just words, but that the US wants control over the oil producing regions of the Mideast. However, it seems pretty clear that the US is willing to demonstrate this attitude in action, at least as the President sees it. How he pulls this off despite his own government’s internal resistance will be interesting, but the premise he makes is accurate.
The outcome of today’s statement is very clear: The onus is on Iran. The president stated that Iran appears to be “standing down”, ostensibly having made their “statement” in their missile attack. But the stated wishes for a peaceful, prosperous and very successful Iran were the content of Mr. Trump’s attitude towards that country and its leaders, and they probably were expecting a far more hostile approach.
Now, those leaders, as well as all the Iranian people, have something to think about. Will they hold on to the years of reinforced propaganda about Jewish oligarchy and power mongering, or will they come to realize that there is really no way they can win going the way they are going. The same process also must take place with many other nations in the world, particularly Europe, and to the extent the Europe still wants to appeast Iran, Iran will try to force other nations to do exactly that.
President Trump’s speech was intended to change the positions of a lot of people on this issue. We will have to wait and see how well this change comes into effect, if it does at all.
The video below shows the entire speech. It is rather brief. Watch it and see what you think.
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