Couple notes to add to this wild scoop by @ErinBanco and @swin24, which you absolutely must read, about Pompeo running a "salt the earth" strategy on US-Iran relations: thedailybeast.com/trump-tells-po…
Last night on @MehdiHasanShow, @tparsi and @barbaraslavin1 discussed precisely this possibility: that the Trump admin and its ME allies want to deepen tensions with Iran to prevent them from having any rapport with a Biden admin:
https://twitter.com/MehdiHasanShow/status/1333576971314475010
What they were conjecturing last night is now pretty clearly the strategy, as reported by @thedailybeast today.
https://twitter.com/MehdiHasanShow/status/1333577377453060096
Of course, this is simply wish fulfillment for Pompeo, who has always been far out ahead of his president on hawking Iran, but who now benefits from Trump's indifference to anything but winning and spoiling those who beat him. See my January dive: newrepublic.com/article/156134…
And it also takes us back to summer 2019, when the U.S. was more or less between defense secretaries, and Pompeo started making trips to U.S. military commands that seemed at odds with a secretary of state's portfolio, just as tensions with Iran deepened. newrepublic.com/article/154228…
Anyhow, Mike Pompeo has demonstrated two things in his tenure at State: He doesn't give a damn about norms, and he enjoys using diplomatic and bureaucratic power to make martial decisions. Remember all of this going forward, as he seeks out a political career post-45
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