Re: Australian ministers met w/ Pompeo at Hoover

[robert <http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert>]

Well, if Putin's plan is to completely bankrupt and destroy the United
States, getting Trump to engage in a war with Iran would be among the best
ways to do it.

 > From: Noelle <http://dummy.us.eu.org/noelleg>
 > Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2018 07:56:15 -0700 (PDT)
 >
 > from today's electoral-vote.com(sorry to ruin your day, or your 
 > August):
 > 
 > So, to summarize, Trump thinks that a president who doesn't 
 > negotiate well, and who has poor poll numbers and a need to show how 
 > tough he is, might seriously consider bombing Iran as a solution to 
 > those problems.
 > 
 > As of Thursday, it is not just speculation, an ALL CAPS tweet, and a 
 > hotheaded National Security Advisor (John Bolton) that suggests 
 > attacking Iran might just be on the Trump docket. News outlets in 
 > Australia are reporting that many members of Prime Minister Malcolm 
 > Turnbull's administration (although not Turnbull himself) think that 
 > the U.S. is prepared to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities, perhaps as 
 > early as next month.
 > 
 > Exactly why would the folks down under have any special insight into 
 > this matter? The answer is that they have reportedly been asked to 
 > provide the necessary intelligence for the bombing, which will come 
 > from the Pine Gap joint defence facility in the Northern Territory 
 > and from the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation. 
 > Conveniently for the Trump administration, perhaps, several 
 > high-ranking members of the Australian government were in San 
 > Francisco this week for a conference, where they met with U.S. 
 > Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Secretary of State Mike 
 > Pompeo.
 > 
 > There is, of course, no question that a war (or a semi-war) with 
 > Iran would further inflame Trump's many opponents, and would drive 
 > even more anti-GOP voters to the polls. But what would the effect on 
 > his base be? They like "strength" and they dislike Iran/Muslims, so 
 > perhaps this move would please them. On the other hand, Trump 
 > campaigned on his negotiating skills, his opposition to the U.S. 
 > being the world's police in general, and his opposition to the Iraq 
 > War in particular. A bombing would run contrary to all of that. And 
 > given how unhappy many right-wing folks were after a relatively 
 > limited bombing in Syria (Alex Jones was literally in tears), a 
 > massive bombing of Iran would surely be all the worse. And that's 
 > before we consider the possibility that Iran responds by lobbing a 
 > missile or 20 in the direction of Israel. In short, it's entirely 
 > believable that Trump (and some of the people who have his ear) 
 > might see this as a game-changer and a political winner. But the 
 > available evidence does not seem to support that conclusion.