1/In a piece I wrote a few weeks ago, I argued that Trump had softened his stance on Iran as part of a broader alignment of US policy with Russia's. ndn.org/blog/2019/12/l…
2/Bolton resigned over what he saw as Trump's growing appeasement of Iran. ndn.org/blog/2019/12/l…
Iran's recent aggression towards the US may have come from what they viewed as their partner Putin's influence over Trump.
Iran's recent aggression towards the US may have come from what they viewed as their partner Putin's influence over Trump.
3/Recall that @maggieNYT reported that part of what created the breach between Bolton and Trump was Bolton's unwillingness to defend the President's slavish attitude towards Putin.
@maggieNYT 4/So perhaps Iran and Russia miscalculated here, and pushed the US too far. After a year of Trump's dramatic re-alignment of US foreign policy towards Putin and his surrender in Syria, they thought they could push him out of Iraq too. And here we are.
@maggieNYT 5/Why would Russia/Iran think the US was on the verge of leaving Iraq?
How about that letter yesterday.....cnbc.com/2020/01/06/let…
How about that letter yesterday.....cnbc.com/2020/01/06/let…
@maggieNYT 6/And what did they witness here in the US? Chaos.
Trumpian weakness, appeasement, chaos has invited all this. The calculation is that Trump won't/can't mount a successful war, and the effort to get US out of Iraq will continue in the coming weeks.
Trumpian weakness, appeasement, chaos has invited all this. The calculation is that Trump won't/can't mount a successful war, and the effort to get US out of Iraq will continue in the coming weeks.
@maggieNYT 7/Everything about Trump's management of the Iran conflict - chaos and incoherence, appeasement of Russia, lawlessness, gratuitous belligerence - strengthens the argument for his removal.
My new @medium essay medium.com/@Simon_Rosenbe…
My new @medium essay medium.com/@Simon_Rosenbe…
@maggieNYT @Medium 8/A reminder that the Russian/Iranian play here is get to the US out of Iraq. That has been the goal, and remains the goal. Question now is what is US strategy. Do we want to stay? Why? How do we stay if Iraq wants us to leave? Did POTUS blow it?
@maggieNYT @Medium 9/The @washingtonpost does a deep dive on the essential issue here - is the US leaving Iraq? Do we have a choice? Has the Russian/Iranian operation worked? Did Trump and Pompeo unwittingly play into their hands?
@maggieNYT @Medium @washingtonpost 10/Trump's mismanagement of his other big "war" - his trade war with China - may also have encouraged Russia/Iran to escalate. They know he is a cowardly, ignorant buffoon who has isolated the US from its allies, turned US into weakened, spent force. ndn.org/blog/2019/12/t…
@maggieNYT @Medium @washingtonpost 11/Question now is whether out of incompetence & zealotry Pompeo's assassination of Soleimani helped Russia/Iran achieve their main strategic goal of getting US out of Iraq; what may have been seen as US tactical success was in fact strategic disaster. washingtonpost.com/world/middle_e…
@maggieNYT @Medium @washingtonpost 12/US analysts need to wake the f--k up about what is happening in the Middle East right now. Nothing even close to winning here for the US.
