To expect Trump to commit to any principle is the fault. At his core, Trump is a narcissist who only is concerned with his own status. Everyone else is just an audience for his center-stage performance. Anybody who thinks he's committed to some global Mideast peace plan is delusional. Iran will have taken over Iraq within the next decade and the Shi'ites will rule the Middle East, despite the Saudi (Sunni) efforts to prevent it. The U.S. is a bystander in all of this, and Trump's cluelessness about the power dynamics among these nations is the vacuum that allows the Boltons and Pompeos of this administration to manipulate our country's march to war.
66
To think the potential casualties were not part of the initial briefing Trump received is to be both stupid, and to play into Trumps' "I'm a tough guy, but compassionate" lie.
Confront Putin on his 2016 election meddling, confront Kim on his ordering the murders of 340 North Koreans including his brother and uncle, confront the Saudis specifically MBS for the brutal murder and dismemberment of journalist Kashoggi and I will consider you basically human.
Our 2 war hawks: Bolton joined the National Guard to avoid having to go to Vietnam as he believed "it was a lost cause anyway". Pompeo graduated first in his class at West Point, then served from 1986-1991; peacetime.
44
Pompeo and Bolton are the kind of people George Washington warned us against in his farewell address. But George couldn't have imagined anyone as bad as these two masked crusaders. Think Dick Chaney and Condoleeza Rice or LBJ and Robert McNamara. These are the kind of people who imagine grave consequences if America doesn't launch a preemptive military strike. They are, pure and simple, war mongers. And they must be stopped. Of course, we shouldn't even be in this position, but we are because Donald Trump backed America out of the Iran Nuclear Agreement to spite Barrack Obama. Our military is not the answer. Intelligent diplomacy is the answer. War may come to our doorstep, and we need to be ready, but this only occurs when diplomacy fails. Pompeo and Bolton want diplomacy to fail. That's their M.O. Beware.
76
"He is improvising, confusing friend and foe alike, even as he plays a perilous game of chicken ... " (Nicholas Kristof, NYTimes, 22June2019) All of Mr. Trump's chest beating, demagoguery, and strutting is for short term gain with his base. No thought to all Americans, career American diplomats, American allies, etc., just his beloved 40% and Fox. Now the real effects are coming in, and he is in over his head. All along, Mr. Trump's presidential efforts have been just a vanity project, plus an effort to promote his "brand" and his "base". After his surprise (apparently even to him) election, he seemed to consider the country as an extension of his personal sandbox, Mar-A-Lago etc. Now faced with truly tough decisions possibly involving thousands of deaths - American, foreign, military, civilian - he should finally realize he was never qualified to be POTUS and never will be.
60
quite simply neither trump or carlson have invested in defense industries or we would be bombing iran right now
26
Seriously? You don't think the entire episode, including cancelling the attack, was planned from the start?
36
I couldn’t get past the gravitas of this piece, for all the comedy involved. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, as I try to envision the meetings Trump, in the role the late Peter Sellers was meant to play, may have had with his hard hatted hawk brigade on how many Iranians will die. Is it surreal? Is it madness saved by the grace of dumb luck? Or are we looking at a preview of Dr. Strangelove?
39
Let's not forget the "Evangelicals" who look forward to Armageddon, the annihilation of Islam and the Middle East, to usher in "the end times", that is, the end of the world as we know it and the return of the Christ. For them, Trump is not just a pretty face, he's the one who they believe is capable of setting off just such a conflagration. I'll bet they are wondering what went wrong to have him back away from the current situation which presented him with such a perfect opportunity to make their dreams come true.
46
I believe the whole thing is to gin up oil prices. Iran is happy, Trump's oil supporters are happy, and a lot of noise is made.
9
its like living in the 21st century version of "Dr. Strangelove" but without any geniuses in the mix.
25
Where is the journalist exposing Trump's Iraq decision for what it was: another puffed-up lie, Trump claiming to have made the decision not to bomb Iraq targets at the last moments out of humanitarian concerns. Does any journalist outside the Fox Network believe Trump's story? Really? This guy cannot be trusted on anything and I can't understand why any news story about him doesn't begin with that disclaimer: Much of what Trump says here is unverifiable and the rest is lies.
39
As nauseating as it is to contemplate the "mind" of Trump, it is at least as nauseating to contemplate the "minds" of his advisors.
But this nausea is nothing compared with what one feels contemplating the "minds" of Trump's supporters and voters. What in this do they possibly conceive of as "leadership?" Indeed, what is their conception of "leadership?"
47
Trump cared enough about Iranian lives, supposedly, that he called off the strike but how about the lives of the little children who are being forced to sleep on concrete floors and are denied food, tooth brushes, and caretakers?
55
Given the look on Pompeo’s face, are we certain Trump doesn’t need protection for his decision.
10
Most powerful man on Earth? If Trump pulls the trigger on Iran, he can kiss re-election goodbye.
14
Unstable and incompetent. How much more of his "crazy-genius" can we put up with? Does anyone have any hair left?
30
Just like the 2016 election, Trump has swindled and distorted the liberal mind once again. Do you really think he conceded? Yes, his decision makes us “feel” good. It makes us feel like we can go out and keep up the usual veneered nonsense. Go out a “shop” and not worry about zemski matters and things as another president once said about their little war. But we know deep down inside it’s all a lie. Another bit of cozen cognition developed in the cogs of Trump’s mind and mistaken media simplification.
6
Recipe for being a 'winner' every time:
Announce your intention to do something cataclysmically stupid — to look tough.
Pull back at the last moment — to look decisive.
Declare yourself a 'winner.'
And paper over any inconvenient questions or criticisms with lies.
As Charlie Sheen said, "Winning!"
33
Two options unless one is gullible enough to believe caporal bonespur; either he was not listening because the experts did not mention his name in the same sentence that pointed to the numbers of potential victims, or he lied to the nation again. What a shame!
17
25th Amendment.
28
What part of this episode is anything other than a hot mess? I am happy that this air strike didn’t happen, but giving him any credit for anything other than haphazard and dangerous decisions is ridiculous and incomprehensible.
29
Big MIke and sheriff Bolton stroll in hoping to maneuver macho Don the Con into a shoot-out, but the Don, for reasons known only to himself, somehow pushed the wrong button. Crisis averted and Big Mike and the sheriff with egg on their face slink away - they'll be back another day pitching for missiles and a real Independence Day fireworks day lighting up Tehran. Don the Con did it his way, and regardless of his motives, we have to thank him for doing something right. For the moment sheriff Bolton and big Mike slither back into the swamp.
21
Nevermind that Trump brought this on himself by backing out of the Iran Nuclear Deal or that most of us have no clue as to whether this was the way things really went down (to say that I am highly suspicious is an understatement), I'll take it. The "extremely stable genius" has given new meaning to the old adage of taking 1 day at a time. One day feels like a thousand years with this administration. Living tweet to tweet is such a blast! Oooops, poor choice of words.
21
President Trump is a fearful man. He is a telephone tough guy but when it comes to action he is afraid. Foreign despots who rule by fear recognize fear because their lives depend on it. They know that Trump will not resort to force and will act accordingly. By the way, if the Iranians shoot down a US plane and kill a pilot would it not be disproportionate to kill 150 Iranian personnel with a missile strike?
6
Is our president actually capable of imagining what and obliterated Iran would look like_
I strongly doubt that.
Is he ready to obliterate because he fears that Mar a Lago would be obliterated? If so by what country?
Given a list of possible nations, that list will not include Iran, a country that has no nuclear weapons.
Surely not North Korea, maybe California some day, but never the East Coast. Besides, his "Sweet Embraceable You" who runs that country has no wish to kill his most famous admiirer.
Russia? Not likely, the Cuban Missile Crisis setting is history.
China? Lose one its best customers, not a chance.
So in the end as we all ask, why do Bolton, Pompeo, and Trump fear Iran so much?
Perhaps the answer lies in Pompeo's evangelical brain or bible, which tells him the is the one chosen to save Israel.
Which of that trio will take us over the brink?
I do not want to learn the answer as confirmed by an action.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
13
The president deserves credit here. Someone more stupid and insecure --like Tom Steyer-- or someone more entrenched to the foreign policy establishment--like Joe Biden--would likely have taken us to war with Iran. Trump's biggest issue with foreign policy is that he has Bolton and Pompeo advising him. However, Im not sure he really values their opinions or listens to them, luckily. He could just have appointed them so that he always has someone to point to to say---think how much worst it could get.
Tom Steyer should be in a cold dark cell for the rest of his life. The fact that no media outlet has reported on his rise up the political ranks exclusively through bribes and attacks on American Citizens and their families really underlines the decline of Investigative Journalism in this country. It seems that News has become simply an analysis of contested facts, and that Newspapers do not seek to expand the degree of certainty of those fact or our knowledge-base, so we just end up with opinion pieces where almost all of the premises are contestable and misguided.
I'd also be extremely disappointed in the FBI if they were not looking into Tom Steyer. There are emails in the public domain--that were leaked by Russia--that basically outline his bribery of the Clinton campaign--and he has done so much worst, including targeting special needs children, US attorneys and innocent members of families of political enemies.
Hopefully, they are. There's so much there there!
2
After your comment, Trump did something right, you essay becomes hysterical railings and speculation. For your readers insight you might first acknowledge that there is a real, Iranian-caused crisis in the Straits of Hormuz, a shipping lane vital to world commerce. This isn’t gaslighting or a manufactured crisis as the left has dubbed it, it is real and not of our making. A US response will be necessary, but one proportionate, as Trump has said. Perhaps you could also note that the neocons, by and large are NeverTrumpers, and some of the driving force for military intervention. Note Bret Stevens recent editorial amount American leadership, primarily military, to preserve the “liberal world order”. That statement, by the way, has more to do with Trump election than anything else. Folks are sick of losing lives and money in foreign wars with no end and Trump agrees. For some reason, you decide to bring up the Gulf of Tonkin, Ws Iraq war and other ramblings. Trump decision not to bomb is a direct refutation of these past mistakes. Then you really dive off the deep end and suggest Tucker Carlson somehow influenced this decision. Did you think Trump called Tucker minutes before the strike and said, “ Tucker, should I bomb Iran”. “ No Mr. President, don’t do that”. I thought the liberal press thought Fox News was the White House communications department, now apparently, they are dictating policy. Pull yourself together, tirades to not befit you.
2
"Discretion is the better part of valor" are the wise words of cowards. Such wisdom is uttered by wimps.
Maybe if Dowd reported about Trump 4 years ago, he would not be President today
27
Pompeo and Alex Fields are ideologues .One is a murderer and the other would like to be if he can only get the chance.
1
Remember the Maine!
3
Mr Bolton how did you do on Iraq Sir,,, not so good hu? Did you learn anything on somebody else’s pain of loosing their pride and joy, ( poster is dad of two actively serving in the marines)
12
I listened to Liz Cheney being interviewed by a reporter this week in Denver. I’m sorry Liz Cheney and all you GOP war mongers send your own kids off into unnecessary wars...or please go work as s nurse in a VA hospital. My son is an active duty Marine..I’m fully aware of what he signed up for. But when it’s your kid Bolton or Liz consider what you are asking from your Trumped up need to go to war. Liz your dad Dick Cheney knew that our soldiers were not properly outfitted for the gulf war but he sent them to war with what he had...many were killed or maimed....if you want war again in the Middle East how bout send your sons and daughters first if you are so convinced this is necessary.
37
I don't hear much about another possibility: the It-wasn't-proportional gambit but with a reverse timeline. It would speak to Trump's instinct for teevee production values. It basically goes like this:
1) our drone gets shot down
2) the generals say no one was killed
3) Bolton and Pompeo gleefully argue "this is it, Mr. President"
4) Trump tells the group "OK, get everything in place for a decision"
5) But there never is a 'decision', because Trump already knows he isn't going to pull the trigger on a new Middle East war over a downed drone. But he doesn't tell anybody. All the principal's operate as if he hasn't made his mind up yet. But Trump, teevee executive, already knows he wants to milk this for the cliffhanger it will look like on the backside. Who's going to tell him different? He's the prez, after all. He's the only show in town.
9
Apparently Trump warned this Sunday morning that Iran will soon see “obliteration like you’ve never seen before” if they do not do what he says.
It is a curious phrase. They have not seen it, because he cancelled it; why should they take this new threat similarly?
It is also a bizarre tactic. Trump’s alphabet has but two letters, A and Z. Either, Iran ignores the USA (A) or they will cease to exist on the planet (Z). One would assume even Trump knows the full alphabet (I guess). There are 24 other options in the English alphabet alone (even more in modern Persian).
It is, finally, a return to step one. Blowhard.
Sorry Ms. Dowd, gotta write a new article....
5
Maureen Dowd does it again. The secret of how she generates outstanding columns on political events seems to be not mentioning Hillary or Obama.
5
Trump is all swagger and no substance. Like any bully, he's really a weakling and has absolutely no stomach for a fight with anyone he's not entirely sure he can beat in about 5 minutes. I might be giving him too much credit but I almost think the entire "I pulled back at the last minute" thing was a ploy to make him look REASONABLE rather than weak. In reality there is no policy at all with this administration, but the man likes to feel like he's entirely and 100% in charge so the idea that "his people" pushed him one way but that he finally overruled them actually, in his tiny mind, puff up his feeling of self-importance and in this one instance, might have had the UNINTENDED and UNEXPECTED result of actually being the right decision. Of course he only ever STUMBLES into doing the right thing, which happens about 1% of the time as we all know well.
3
Just like the 2016 election, Trump has swindled and distorted the liberal mind once again. Do you really think he conceded? Yes, his decision makes us “feel” good. It makes us feel like we can go out and keep up the usual veneered nonsense. Go out a “shop” and not worry about the wind affected political drool and matter as another president once said about their little war. But we know deep down inside it’s all a lie. Another bit of cozen cognition developed in the cogs of Trump’s mind and mistaken media simplification.
Even the Devil has to be given his due. He did not start another war spiraling down into the abyss. And for once his reason for doing so is right. The war would be a disproportionate response. 150 Iranians dead for an unmanned drone? He is right! Now I just hope all the war-hawks in his Administration, the Press and others stop calling him a wimp, weak etc. etc. Knowing Trump and his ego, he might just change his mind to prove he is not. The fact is he showed great courage!
Beyond President Blowhard and his attack dogs are two long-standing Middle East foreign policy issues; the stability of oil prices and the security of Israel. But is this “legacy” thinking?
Regardless of a given US administration’s agendas including this one is the political reality of Israel’s security. Nuclear security.
So why doesn’t Iran just buy a couple of short range ballistic missiles complete with nuclear warheads from North Korea. They could certainly use the money. I’m guessing it’s because North Korea doesn’t have anything like that. Not yet. So it’s back to the expensive slow hassle of developing your own nuclear weapons technology, knowing somebody will just blow it up if you get anywhere. I’m looking at you Israel.
Then there’s oil prices. The US Energy Information Agency https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/steo/report/us_oil.php. data shows the US to be essentially energy independent. So why care about Iran’s pathetic attempts at Hormuz oil tanker interdiction? It’s because most US oil production goes into motor gasoline production. Higher prices of car gas mean a Carter-esk one term presidency. Well we can’t have that or long lines of Orlando golf carts at the filling station.
Ever the student of history, Trump may have noticed the only president dumber than him got re-elected. There’s nothing like a war to get senators cheering as one.
2
The serious side of this situation is very scary, disturbing and concerning. Fortunately, DJT backed off of the imminent violence he himself created.
I didn't watch/listen to Chuck Todd's interview this morning. Why? All DJT does is bloviate and lie. Waste of time.
But I have been thinking of the man's lack of intelligent, thoughtful leadership, and I can't help but think: it's summer, time for the big blockbuster, animated, technicolor movies. This could be one of those directed and produced by DJT. A cast of unlikely diplomatic characters, easy to visually satirize -- Bolton, Carlson, Hannity. Huge and expensive toys: a multi-million dollar pilotless spy plane called a drone. A drama of the seas. And an enemy that DJT can't wait to vanquish. The optics!
How in the world did we get here?
5
Trump can pay for the drone and write it off on his taxes.
For once, I see something that worked with POTUS. And thank you Tucker Carlson. Carlson sometimes gets it right on his show and in the President's ear (this time).
We need a new Grand Bargain with Iran, NK, and Pakistan.
Despite his accidental foray into sanity, this is a temporary reprieve. Donny is "locked and bloated" and can change his "mind" at any moment.
13
Here's you clue that there is more theater than facts. . . when was the last time you heard Trump use a word like "proportionate?" "Somebody" told him to use it in explaining why he backed down, whether because he chose to or the Pentagon chose for him.
9
Iran took a million casualties in its war with Iraq, which led nowhere. Their children cleared mines by walking on them. No bone spurs mentioned. This is serious.
5
Ms. Dowd affirms the notion that a death-dealing military strike against Iran would spark "conflagrations from Afghanistan to Lebanon and beyond." Far beyond, actually. Think the United States of America in this case. Think global conflagration, all to serve the pathetic ego needs of emotional juveniles to whom "toughness" means hiring mercenaries to launch missiles from the safe distance of a cushy office in DC, sending other people's children into the line of fire.
The moral degeneracy and ethical wasteland of this administration would be breathtaking if had not become so normalized. We place arms sales above the blatant war crime of the murder and bodily dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi. This is what is making America great again, and it represents us.
13
To the average intelligent mind, this president seems to be doing everything right.
How deranged does one have to be to deny him any credit at all for using common sense and using threats to force international compliance? It works.
.
It seemed a cute device to describe anti-Trumpers as having Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), but how else could you describe all the nonsensical denial of his many successes in office.
(Feel free to find his successes via Google.)
"As shocking as it is to write this sentence, it must be said: Donald Trump did something right."
He did something right on Thursday. He could change his mind today, tomorrow or in the next hour. We have feckless people making critical decisions for our national security including Trump, Pence, Bolton, Pompeo and Cotton. It's doubtful Hillary would have been considering war with Iran since she would have stayed in the nuclear agreement. But, oh those emails....
9
By law, any proposed military action must include estimated casualties, on the enemy and civilians.
So either Pompeo and Bolton and the generals were willfully flouting the law, or Trump was lying about when he was told about potential casualties. Now I favor the latter, but I would never discount the former.
Given his fold about mass deportations starting forthwith, I think Trump had the kind of chicken over chickenhawk week that is like a blind squirrel finding an acorn.
4
If these planes were in the air, enroute to strike Iran, what happened to millions of dollars of military ordinance attached? Did they dropped into the sea since it would be too dangerous to land?
2
Why do I get the feeling that it’s all been wonderfully choreographed by his henchmen, in line with his narcissist behavior, to showboat to his base his strong last-minute decision-making leadership skill?
8
Yes, it is astounding that Republicans—who last took us to war and occupation so recently we’re still there!—are tempted to do it again. Even Trump’s “base,” blind to how he’s worsening their future at every turn, can see the folly, the cost, to another military adventure in the Middle East.
1
Another completely wrong reading of what is going on. Wow.
George W. Bush was not tricked into the invasion of Iraq. It is now well documented that Bush had mused to a biographer about starting a "re-election war" before he was ever elected. Dubya wasn't afraid of looking like a wimp, he had to just make sure he didn't start a small war that he won too easily - that's the lesson he took from his father.
Trump knows about the re-election war strategy - in 2011 he tweeted five times that he expected Obama to start a war with Iran exactly with that strategy in mind. As Dubya said in a 2004 interview with this very newspaper, he was running as a "war president" - because a sitting US president has never lost an election during wartime.
Trump is not concerned in the least will killing innocent Iranians, he is simply concerned about the timing. He is going to launch a nuclear first strike against Iran to start a war that Congress can't stop, but he has to make sure there are still troops on the ground fighting come November, 2020, so his only concern is timing, and right now is too soon.
Trump is going to launch his nukes in mid-January (nobody likes a war over Christmas) and the people who are paid for their opinion by this newspaper just aren't good enough at their job to see what has happened and what is happening and what will happen. When Trump talks about Iran being "obliterated" - exactly what fantasy do you think he is playing in his head.
Trump is going to nuke Iran.
5
This is one reason the Democrats should not impeach Trump. Does anyone doubt what a President Pence would have done instead?
2
The solution to all of our problems with Iran is actually breathtakingly obvious: a mash-note from Ayatollah Khamenei ("Dear Donald, I love you even more than the Prophet, blessings be upon you."), a state banquet at Golestan Palace complete with a mysterious glowing orb and a deal for a Trump hotel in Tehran in exchange for the rights to a nuclear arsenal and complete sanctions relief. Everyone gets everything they really want.
comment submitted 6/23 at 12:52 AM
4
This is the consequence of the dumbing down of America, starting with the first draft dodger Ronald Reagan. No substance, all fluff, and slowly dismantling the safety nets built into society. And the glorification of this effeminate, draft dodging loser who is so stupid? He declared bankruptcy 6 times, even after inheriting $490 MILLION from daddy. You can't make this stuff up. And when in doubt? Start warmongering, and relying on ignorant Americans with their knee jerk patriotism. The great experiment that was America (and in all honesty? It wasn't that great; just ask women, African and Native Americans) is over. When China calls in her markers, and America can't pay? Don't say it wasn't all your faults.
14
It’s way too early in the election cycle. The shoot down occurs in June, 2020, and it’s a different story, especially if Trump continues to find himself buried in the polls. Bush was approaching re-election with nothing for show and tell. Bin Laden was nowhere to be found. But, the loudmouth who, “tried to kill my daddy”, was in plain sight. Wartime presidents get themselves re-elected...”thanks, Dick”...so a sales campaign rivaling that of the best door to door encyclopedia salesman is launched and...Trump is not only competing for re-election, he’s probably struggling to keep himself out of prison. The next democrat in the White House may not be as forgiving as Obama. If Executive producers, Bolton and Pompeo are able to sell this Persian thing into a second season, “things” could get really interesting, really quick.
7
Allah is the Romanized spelling of an Arabic word. The word means, “God,” that is, the God who appears in the Hebrew Bible, the God about whom Jesus preached to his fellow Jews, and the God whose prophet was also Muhammad, one in a long history of prophets. Yet Dowd seems to say that Muslims believe in some strange deity whose name is Allah. Arabic speaking Christians have no word but Allah to refer to “ God.”
2
Vote...............
7
When a nation becomes grateful for the logic and restraint of the likes of Tucker Carlson, it’s time for some serious self-examination and existential analysis.
18
Honest to goodness, did anyone else initially read the statement...“I didn’t like it,” “I didn’t think it was proportionate.”... as Trump thinking there wasn't going to be enough bloodshed and lives lost? Ugh. Even when re-reading the article, the idea of Trump desiring more rather than less carnage still hung in the air. "I always attack back, except 100x more".
4
In the midst of a deep economic crisis, this is a huge victory for the Islamic Republic of Iran. Hassan Rouhani needs public support: HE GOT IT.
There should be a least few strikes to blow their missile sites. The Global Hawk lost has about a 130 ft wingspan, similar to a passenger Boeing 737. So, it is not an small drone.
1
His credibility as president is so low it is hard to accept most rationals he puts forward. Maybe he called off this attack because of the 150 potential deaths. Maybe he called it off because it wasn't playing well with his base. Maybe he called it off because of feedback from FOX. Maybe he went to his private Tweeting room with a magic eight ball and it came up no or maybe we should just chalk this decision up to serendipity. Saved by the bell.
8
Everyone got lucky because Trump is too cowardly to indulge in war, but only for the moment.
Probably, the real problem still lies ahead - trying to elect any Democrat over him during wartime.
3
Vladmir probably told Trump to cut it out and not to think of retaliating in a military strike against Iran or else. Same way Trump backed off on North Korea and Venezuela. Allies are unwilling to back this president except Bibi and Saudis. All hat- no horse.
5
Maureen, are you serious? Or are you just not paying attention?
If you haven’t noticed in the past three years, this little maneuver is Trump’s go-to strategy to make himself look like a hero: Let whatever crisis that he is creating boil to a head, let it sit a few minutes longer and then at the last minute reverse course, declaring himself the savior of whatever group/state/country/fill-in-the-blank his latest crisis would hurt the most.
This is his only move– playing chicken with our country and the entire world. And as with every narcissist – and he most assuredly is one - the only person who sees him as a hero is himself.
You used to be a strong columnist. Now with every column you write, you just prove yourself to be late to the party. What happened?
7
You do not praise someone for threatening to shoot someone and pulling out the gun deciding to not shoot someone. Especially when you know that this person is still capable of shooting that person later and might. What you try to do is reward them for what you know is the right choice and hope they are behaviorally conditioned like Pavlov's dog to repeat the action.
5
Noticed that you seem to have forgotten Barack Obama and Hillary's support for the disastrous US military action in Libya perpetuating a civil war which still has not ended.
6
Why does the media assume that Trump can actually THINK. The only reason he backed off is that Tucker Carlson told him he would lose in 2020 if he started another war.
Trump couldn’t care less about the worst case scenario of 150 Iranians dying! He doesn’t care that we’re traumatizing toddlers on our southern border, locked in cages sleeping on cold cement floors and now toothbrushes and soap are too luxurious for these “animals and sub-humans.”
Trump wants TWO things--to be re-elected in 2020 and have an entire day on July 4th dedicated to HIM with military parades, equestrian units, bugle and drum corps, and LOTS of flyovers including AF1? He’ll give a speech (Ok a campaign rally) at the Lincoln Memorial.
Every year our extended military calabash family meets in DC for the 4th. Not this year.
He’s destroying our Democracy and doesn’t know he’s doing it! He’s just out to please folks like John Bolton. We don’t even have a Secretary of Defense! And everyone else is “acting” which produces no permanent policy.
I HATE the fact that people tell me “Thank me for your service.” I always say back--"Yeah we’re GREAT at slaughtering millions of civilians...whether Vietnam or the Middle East.”
I now despise the USA--my home for 74 years. I HATE my role as an Army doctor as we used youngsters as grist for the mill for making us #1.
No we’re not.
18
One minute Trump is faking compassion.
The next minute he is demeaning the dignity of some person who challenges his amorality.
Next day he is playing his "schmoozer" con-game again, playing up to people he is "using" for his narcissistic needs.
We've had multiple people as acting Sec of Defense, because con-man Trump likes the flexibility to play his game of --- "we'll see what happens."
"We'll see what happens" when he is voted out of office.
He won't get away with "shooting someone on Fifth Ave." And, we'll wait to learn about his taxes . . . and whatever happens next.
We are really tired of being slapped in the face everyday by this "blowhard on the brink."
Good citizens -- "it's time to roll.” Act now. His time is up.
15
It's more than disturbing to need acknowledge that the King is so arrogantly self-congratulatory about his new clothes. But to know that Pompeo and Bolton are his tailors is manifestly terrifying.
5
The only positive reinforcement arguments you need to make to Trump are:
War is bad for your polls.
War is bad for your wallet.
No rational argument or praise matters to Trump, certainly not the perspective of 150 innocents casualties (who happen to be muslims)!
4
During the campaign Foreign Affairs ran an article discussing how extremists were praying to Allah for Trump's election (Putin wasn't the only one rooting for Trump.) Why? Simple; Trump was a poster boy for recruiting fodder for jihad. Trump's Islamophobia and anti-Muslim rhetoric was perfect to convince potential recruits that the West in general and America in particular hated Muslims and wanted to destroy Islam. If Trump attacks Iran, he alienates other Shiites (like Iraq) and offers motivation to ISIS cells and Al Qaeda to attack America. Iran is the brier patch. Once you're in, your stuck and you will bleed.
2
If I was an American and had a vote nothing could convince me to vote for Donald J. Trump.
However, I am glad he made this move - for whatever reason. For your own sake as well mine and all people who hate the idea of mother's sons being sent out to kill other mother's sons. Daughters too, I suppose.
When will we evolve?
7
The picture says it all: a narsissistic and impetuous dotard clearly in his second childhood advised by two neocons who want to repeat the mistakes of the Iraq war in Iran. This dangerous troika threatens not only Middle East peace but the whole world order. Netanyahu and the Saudi Crown Prince can't wait for the Americans to do their fighting and dying for them. Meanwhile the president's son-in-law comes up with a $50 billion Israeli-Palestinian "peace plan" that contains no U.S. commitment of funds and no details of why Palestinians would even consider remaining stateless in a West Bank swallowed up by Jewish settlers with an Israeli capital now recognized by a U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.
11
Maureen, as much as I enjoy your columns this one is too hard on the Donald. Trump did something right. Don’t be so blind that you cannot accept the good with the bad.
2
I need to buy shares in whatever company makes the most popular prescription tranquilizer. We're all going to need th em before this is over. We can stop afterward, if there is an afterward.
2
The frightening truth is that Trump has zero goals or policy beyond making up for his parents' lack of attention and love. He is nothing more than a morals-free narcissist stuck in the "terrible twos".
4
US history is wrought with war as if it is the only economic engine that moves this country. How many folks are wealthy standing on the graves of innocents?
How incredibly presumptuous we are that this "democracy" is the designated answer when 90% of Americans are aggregate slaves to greedy masters; slaves to the regressive educational system, the sick medical establishment, the pharmaceutical pushers, chemical purveyors, fake food peddlers, transportation shamers, banking sleaze, advertising swindlers, petroleum/plastics czars, warped justices, perverted religions, degenerate energy structures, hawkish military-industrial complex, the inept bought n' sold government and now a distorted imposter of a president.
Slavery was never eradicated. It was just institutionalized, condoned, deceptively imposed and justified in a counterfeit democracy.
And we wonder where this is headed? Beyond the brink......
4
It would certainly be nice if the guys and gals fighting the wars would finally see what the likes of Bolton and Pompeo have in store for them. No more wars — avoid those kind like the plague.
1
Maureen, Trump plays games.
How do you know that Trump ever intended to hit Iran?
Perhaps, saying he backed off is his latest his publicity stunt!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
W.C. Fields said, "Never give a sucker an even break."
When will critics and Democrats wise up to Trump games?
Democrats ramble on and on and their messages are forgotten.
I hope that Democrats soon wise up, and learn how to respond.
For example, they could show an inverted US distress flag.
They could sing the "Democracy" song of Leonard Cohen.
But no, Democrats continue to ramble on, blah, blah, blah.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1
I think Trump backed off simply because he didn't want to risk damage to his reelection campaign effort. He lives for those rallies.
Trump is a malignant narcissist. Everything is about him, just him, even a war would be just about him. Say this over and over to yourself. Do not project more normal motivations onto him.
If an advisor wants to manipulate Trump, he should couch his proposals in terms of what it would do for for Trump. What it would do for the country or anyone else does not matter.
4
Finally, a straight column with zero snark directed at HRC or any Democratic figures. Blame placed squarely on the corrupt and incompetent shoulders that deserve it. Zero false equivalency.
Bravo MD.
Just imagine if Trump had been President instead of W. We wouldn't have wasted over 5 Trillion dollars! (Iraq & Afghanistan). The crying has to stop.
2
"Just remember: The Iranians are great negotiators with a bad hand and you are a terrible negotiator with a good hand."
Alas, great advice but Trump doesn't know that he's a terrible negotiator. The Delusional in Chief is utterly devoid of realistic self awareness. He only hears what he wants to hear and what he wants to hear are only the things which flatter him and inflate his unjustified ego. Everything else is just white noise, fake news or evil conspiracies against him. Telling him that he's a terrible negotiator will just make him want to prove that he's in fact an unparalleled negotiator and that never goes well, for him, but especially for the rest of us.
We can spend 5 trillion on a war that should never have happened but we can't provide health care to everyone!!
9
One thing we can count on is Trump never tells the truth. That's nicespeak for - he lies 24/7. Denying that axiom may get a lot of us killed.
3
What astounds me most is that there are people who DO want to kill 150 human beings because someone destroyed one of our machines.
5
Despite my deep loathing of the Mad Hatter, I could not suppress my admiration for his courage in standing up to the military maniacs who see war as the answer to every question in the world. In all likelihood, the Hatter realizes that once the MI Complex starts running the show, he loses all control of the "narrative." A rogue con artist like our president does not want to be boxed in by heavy artillery.
3
The sad reality is if there is a war with Iran it will be the non-college educated white men- i.e. trump supporters- who will end up being sacrificed.
3
Trump deserves praise for not escalating in Iran. There are plenty of proportionate responses to take. For example, increased naval presence to block further mining of ships; to shadow the Iranian Navy patrols. Response as proportionate with our navy under orders to defends itself while in international waters.
We really do hold all the aces. There is no reason to play a wild card. Just keep it cool.
One thing for sure, there are a ton of leaks- to the point that it is purposeful. Trump himself discusses things as he thinks through them, which was oddly praiseworthy in this instance.
2
The thing that gets me is why was Trump told at the END of the decision process that 150 Iranians might die. Shouldn't possible casualties for both sides be identified at the START of the process?
I simply can't believe that we would get mired in yet another Middle East war and the lives and treasure that would be at stake.
2
I think you give the blowhard and chief too much credit. Since we can not believe anything he ever says, perhaps this was just another ploy to end up where all his sane (are there any?) advisors were telling him all along.
Hard to believe a compulsive egomaniac about anything. Just glad the end result so far is not worse.
4
DT can't even get the 'tough guy' lingo down correctly! The cliché should be 'locked and loaded' and what are those 'sights' that he's considering attacking? Arrogance and ignorance is a dangerous combination.
10
All three of the men in this article feature photo not only look scary, they are scary.
One look at smug Pompeo and the fierce hawk Bolton is enough to scare the bejesus out of me - to think they have the ear of Trump - the ear Trump is indicating in this photo.
4
The abandonment of any sense of objectivity about Trump renders any opinions about geopolitics meaningless.
2
Trump is taking credit for putting out a single ember from the massive fire he started and that is still raging. What is the long-term strategy? Is Trump employing the Kim Jong Un tactic, thinking that the Ayatollah will now send Trump a love letter and they can have a good chin wag, without any benefit to any geopolitical purpose other than mutual stroking of ridiculous egos? Will this be the new model for US diplomacy?
4
It's ironic that our last successful war – the first Gulf War, which was short and to the point, with limited collateral damage – was waged by a "wimp." The chicken hawks should take a lesson from that.
3
This president, in the same interview with Todd, admitted he’s ok with murder, grizzly murder, if the price is right and MBS pays adequate money to the USA according to Trump. How can any Congress person continue to defend, indeed enable this tyrant?
9
He's trying to goad the Dems into impeachment. And that will be the rallying cry for his followers... along with his general belligerence to carry him to a second term. And the dumb Dem presidential candidates and congressional leaders are falling for his trap. WAKE UP DEMS or it 8 years of Trump!
1
It is all about managing his reelection-campaign image. He thrills his base by getting aggressive, and then seeks to expand his support by pulling back with a statesman or politician shtick.
He is imposing aggression interruptus on his base, but this will backfire if they decide he is an aggression tease before November 2020. If they realize this only after the election, things could get really interesting.
1
First, I will never know what happened listening to Trump. Who knows when he is telling the truth.
Second, Trump is getting exactly what he wants.
Trump undid the Iran agreement because Obama did it.
Trump is creating chaos and loving the attention he gets because of it.
And it distracts us from the Mueller report.
We know how these things have ended in the past. Trump will do something and claim he has saved the day.
3
It has been the traditional role of the Secretary of State to prevent war, not advocate for it. Secretary Pompeo apparently is advocating it. Trump should fire him for not doing his job.
7
For a president who gets his info by listening vs. reading, by talking to people vs. digging into intelligence reports or briefings, it makes sense there are so many unfilled positions in his government. If he only has Bolton, Pompeo, and few others like his egregiously under informed daughter or son in law to listen to then learning through listening and talking is highly flawed but feasible for him. But he can't do it the other way -- more fully staff the government with knowledgeable people --- one because now he has no time even if he had inclination; two because that makes too many more voices to listen to including the ones in his head; and three he demonstrates a too narrow an ability to process information, the legacy of how his mind has been formed as a real estate developer, casino owner over the decades plus he has had no meaningful intellectual formation process for this enormous, demanding role. Frightening.
9
Every military and defense specialist from prior administrations has said that numbers of POSSIBLE civilian casualties would ALWAYS be included automatically in military options presented to a president Like many others, I do not believe this was a last-minute awareness and sudden humanitarian decision on the part of DJT.
13
The government announced a cyber attack on Iran on Thursday. It seemed aimed at critical infrastructure of the rogue IRGC command and control. Retaliation is expected.
It should be pointed out that Mr. Trump did not have authorization from Congress for the use military force. The Constitution and the War Powers Act forbade him from allowing the air attack to go forward.
P.S. the missile strike on Syria was similarly illegal, but at that time Republicans had control of Congress.
4
Even a broken clock is right twice a day, and Trump got this one right.
One would assume, at the very least, the Iranians could shut down the Persian Gulf and the spiking price of oil could do real damage to the world economy.
A full scale war in the Middle East, of course, would be 1,000 times worse. If the clock analogy is correct, Trump will be right once more in the next 18 months.
4
There are two known facts about Trump. He can't tell the truth; he either exaggerates, revises or manufacturers everything he says. He cannot accurately report on anything because reality can't live up to his image of his own greatness. The other fact is Trump is all about "talking the talk" rather than doing any walking. Whether it be his wall, the threat to deport all immigrants or attacking Iran, he is more concerned with hearing his own voice than acting. Whether or not the the story he told about his stopping the air strike happened as he related or even happened at all, it will never be known. But the effects of his drama are out of his hands. Ever since he announced for the Presidency, he has managed the narrative, creating villains and crisis after crisis, with himself as the savior. He may be at last on the verge of losing control of the story line.
10
TRUMP is playing a new VIDEO GAME, he hasn't played before. All the leaders of HIS govt are involved and very interested in Trumps new game. They are offering him advise - often conflicting as to what his next move (monitor v board) should be. The entire world, and the world's media are, almost exclusively, intensively focused on Trump exercising the national, but not the international levers of power. This is 100% American guided - with Trump realizing that only HE will be recognized as the VICTOR, and will relish in the limelight HIS VICTORY will assure. (Failure is not to be voiced)
This game is so very exciting and ego-pleasing in that there are so very many high-ranking members of the US and international govts paying rapt attention !
And Trump is so very proud that HE, and only HE, invented this game which makes his adrenaline gallop in ecstasy !
Exhausting - but exhilarating !
He can't wait to play it again....
4
@Al Patrick
And the Nielsens are off the chart - way better than The Apprentice, and more fun !
I can’t move past Trump’s statement that the proposed response wasn’t “proportionate”. That’s a pretty big word full of nuance for this president. Not sure where he heard it, but glad it resonated with him.
16
Several times in this opinion piece Trump is referred to as an "isolationist." Alluding that his decision to back down on military action against Iran was evidence of this. If Trump can be called an isolationist it's a perverse definition of that word. Because for Trump isolationist means America stands front and center the prime and final arbiter of global affairs. For Trump, what America says goes. It a message he dares any other country to contest. From his Oval Office seat he Cagney-esque proclaims America "Top of the world!"
6
We have a blind spot when it comes to discussing the role that Israel (a foreign country) plays in our Mideast adventures. Dowd continues this tradition.
Israel benefitted from Iraq, and quietly grew its might. Israel would benefit from an attack on Iran, which would further disrupt the region. That's what Netanyahu has been lobbying for.
The Israeli lobby AIPAC was judged by Forbes to be in the top 3 most powerful lobbies in Washington (budget size is the wrong measure).
Israel may be a friend, but it is also just as foreign a country as Russia, China, and France. Its citizens elect its government to benefit them, not Americans.
Trump did the right thing because (as he said when he ran) he is not beholden to AIPAC. For once, his instincts were on the mark.
13
The Trump didn't do something right.
At the last minute, The Trump avoided doing something wrong.
But as with everything else he does, he didn't do what he didn't do for the same wrong reasons: His electability, his ego, his bank account, his legal ("How do I stay out of jail?") status. He didn't do what he did because it was the right thing for US foreign policy, or right for the world (Which it just happened to be, completely by coincidence, for once.). He didn't do the "wrong-as-president" thing, because in this instance, it would have been "bad for The Trump." The same way he otherwise always does the wrong thing when it's "good for The Trump."
So, Trump has not done anything he does not always do: Ask himself, "Is it good for The Trump?" At least, what seems good, at this moment, in the head of (Because "in the mind of" risks premises I can't assume without doubting my own mind.) of America's very own Dear Leader (Not literally, but in the North Korean sense. And that's probably giving The Trump too much credit.).
So, for one moment, and completely randomly, what's "good for The Trump" and what's good for the US just happened to coincide. And give credit where credit is do (And I do this both because it is true, and because I cannot think of a greater indictment of The Trump.): The credit goes to Fox News' Tucker Carlson.
Thank God the last person The Trump talked to before he made his decision was not Sean Hannity, The Trump's "normal" puppet master.
12
It's certainly hard to not see the comparisons to the drone downing and the Gulf of Tonkin "incident", Saddam's WMD's, etc. And, unfortunately, it's not much more of a stretch to think that Trump got out of the Iran deal just so he would have the option to create an foreign policy incident. He could then appear to have done something reasonable as the 2020 election comes closer. Something few should have expected.
Me paranoid? Indeed I am. I have seen too many instances of the GOP think-tankers thinking farther down the road than competing ideologies. So orchestration? Improbable, but somehow more than remotely possible in our very bizarre times.
9
Lyndon Johnson was president at the time of the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Seems like both parties carry responsibility for the horrific mayhem the US has brought down on the world over the past 80 years or so.
11
@Brian W.: The capacity to make news gives enormous advantages in financial markets.
Every President who reluctantly or intentionally entered into war had its trigger: Lincoln had the bombing of Fort Sumter, Wilson had Germany's Zimmermann Telegram, Roosevelt had Japanese attacking Pearl Harbor, Truman had North Korea's invasion of South Korea, LBJ had Gulf of Tonkin Incident, George H. W. Bush had Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, his son, George W.Bush had Saddam's non existent WMD and we almost had Trump starting a war by the downing an UNMANNED drone By Iran as a trigger for a war with Iran.
On the scale for the reasons for a war, the downing of an UNMANNED drone and the resulting human casualties on both sides, history would not be kind to the G.O.A.T (Greatest of All Time) President Trump.
8
@Richard
And by what international law did we have the right to invade their air space in the first place. Would we let Iran fly unmanned drones into our airspace?
2
Trump's lack of intellectual competence is the real danger here. As is pointed out by Dowd, he for the most part has others do his thinking for him and then reacts. This time he went with Carlson instead of Pompeo and Bolton. Hanity's input was also not followed. Next time who knows, it might be Dowd's opinion that resonates and another sane decision might be made. Bumbling through decision making based primarily on gut instincts is a prescription for a major mistake. The middle east is a tinderbox that needs to be approached with extreme care and thought. What America does not need right now is another war. Let's hope that when Trump makes his next decision he will listen to the best advice coming from Fox News. Perhaps he might also consult Ms. Dowd, or perhaps we might all consider replacing Trump with a real president, one that knows how to think.
17
Everyone brings up the similarities to the buildup in Iraq, and rightly so. But the other thing to remember is the US’s record with “regime change”... in Iran. Younger people today only hear about the Islamic regime there, as if they’ve always been there. They actually came to power after the Shah of Iran, a brutal dictator installed by the US was overthrown.
It’s hard to imagine what world we’d live in if the CIA and other shadow operations of US policy never tried regime change. Both the Middle East and South and Central Americas would be a lot better off. If we spent the money on infrastructure, healthcare, and other neglected things here at home instead, we would be that “shining city on a hill” that Reagan waxed on about.
This group has already tested Venezuela as a place to try regime change. When they realized that it would be to messy, they chose to provoke...Iran? The only people that would support this policy are those crazy evangelicals who want to see a conflagration in the Middle East so they can be witness to the end times. Seriously, why else would we be doing this?
Nothing like being a citizen who didn’t vote for this and who is powerless to stop it (2020 may be too late). I imagine what it must be for a green-shirted Iranian realizing that they might be bombed mercilessly, and the only thing standing in the way is a president with the temperament of the card queen in Alice in Wonderland.
21
Let’s take a moment and look at this debacle from the Iranians’ perspective. An evangelical Christian, no different than an Iranian Mullah in terms of their religious zealotry and hard line fundamentalist views ( the fact that a purported democracy with a constitutional separation between church and state has an evangelical as the director of the CIA is disturbing to say the least), is beating the war drums, aided and abetted by the their sworn enemies, the Israelis and Saudis. Here’s an idea: why don’t both sides agree to remove the religion from the politics and replace all of these zealots with agnostic technocrats? That would be doing the Lord’s work.
17
Perhaps Trump will pivot now, ever so slightly, to keep his middle 20 percent, maybe even expand it.
At least now we know, in Trump’s mind, that the human life of an Iranian is worth more than $1 million each, as killing 150 people for a $150 million drone is “not proportionate.” It’s a start.
Back to Cheney-Bush: those lives lost, those trillions of dollars wasted, the national mind ripped by cognitive dissonance- were the cause of the 2008 crash, if not by direct economic interactions, then by divine retribution — our curse.
We are lucky Trump loves life.
3
Trump has the Iranians right where they want him.
11
When you have an unmistakable advantage over an adversarial country in all aspects of the instruments of power -- cyber, diplomatic, economic and military -- why think "military" first, second and third among them? As the cyber campaign against Iran reveals, we have the ability to stop shoot-downs by Iranian missiles with the click of an Information Technology button. No one is dead; no U.S. drones or other aircraft are destroyed; a clear message (and harbinger) of superiority is sent. That is not exactly a rocket-science decision being asked of the commander-in-chief, even if he is surrounded by goons like Bolton.
What doesn't make sense to me in this instance is how any president could be briefed in advance of an operation and not immediately be informed of the totality of impact on the enemy, including second- and third-order consequences. It is common for briefings at the highest levels to have a BLUF -- Bottom Line Up-Front -- wherein all-that-is-good and all-that-is-bad is summarized on the first Powerpoint slide and then articulated in detail later in the briefing.
If this didn't happen, then a lot of advisors need to be removed ASAP. If it did happen and he didn't grasp what he was told? Then it's time for a national day of prayer that we make it to November 2020 without world affairs spiraling totally out of control beforehand.
10
Bolton and Pompeo — Keystone Cops on steroids and more Trump pulp fiction.
The supposed last minute move to a sudden flash of sanity was certainly another hoodwink job.
With all of this working so well the strategy is now to double down in driving the Iranian regime into catastrophic economic melt down.
The next unhinged implosion may well be the start of WW-III.
Amazing how this all gets treated pretty much as just more Trump hijinks when it is actually akin to gleefully sending a monkey with a sledge hammer to disarm a highly lethal bomb.
13
Perfect and accurate commentary. Thank you!
3
Trump’s problem is that he sold out to the Saudis and Israelis, probably for huge amounts of cash. These two erstwhile enemies would both love to see a weakened, war-torn, devastated Iran. But Trump’s also beholden to Putin, who seems to exert some sort of mind-meld power over him. Iran is a Russian ally. To get out of this double-bind, Trump is letting the war drums beat but calling off any real action because a war with Iran would also be a war with Russia and perhaps even China, just like Vietnam but with a much better educated, sophisticated Iranian military. It’s a trap that will isolate a war mongering America that will stay at war alone, with no Western allies to be seen. How many wars has the US won since WWII?
9
The important difference between President Trump and most former presidents isn't what he doesn't know or what he refuses to do but, rather, that he's awful at concealing his personality disorder(s). They all have them.
In fact, history teaches us that if we want to study hypocrisy we need look no further than the ever expanding community of politicians.
It's not likely that Trump will be deposed any time soon as he's contributing to an enormous uptick in media success, helping as few before him ever have to create content, the kind that readers, listeners and viewers crave.
Let's start being honest about the seduction quotient he brings to the table. His reality TV history coupled with his practiced way of deflecting and dodging any and all criticism,
makes him the man for our times. It's like hypnotism. It's just being carried out where the stakes are the highest, or so we're told.
This balloon will keep expanding and drawing attention till it's good and ready to stop. All names of Democrats, except perhaps for Tim Ryan, ring so hollow and weak by comparison that it prompts one to think the whole effort at opposing him should be shelved for some entirely different approach.
Billions of dollars will be spent trying to prove what we already know. That he's detestable and nobody really cares.
I stopped hating him today.
5
So what you are saying is that the Preside did the right thing. The President showed restraint. Alas he did not do it your way?
2
Trump loves to have people waiting/dreading to see what he will do next. It gives him power over us.
10
As a Navy midshipman (67-71) at Purdue University, I remember speaking to our Senior Chief about his experience as the radar operator on the Turner Joy during the Tonkin Gulf incident. He related how the event was blown out of proportion, not really alarming to a full time student with other distractions.
The current Iran drone incident had all the same potential for whipping up an unnecessary frenzy. When these boneheads finally run out bad ideas, credibility, and maps of the Middle East, the world will be much better off. In another 50 years, this whole Trump era will assuredly taint the families of the guilty.
8
Thank you Maureen Dowd for your incisive evisceration of Cheyne, Rumsfeld and of course old pseudo-cowboy W. In their run up to the 2003 Iraq Invasion.
Trump finally showed the fine-tuned discretion needed of a Commander in Chief to keep us out of another war.
Bolton and Pompeo need to pay serious attention to their boss at this favorable, emerging attribute: disgression and patience.
Trump has currently separated himself from W. And his attack dogs, Cheyne, And Rumsfeld ; Trump has placed the interest of the country first, instead of ego!
1
We could can the entire military, the State Department and simply use the "advisors" from Fox ?), what could possibly go wrong?
9
I am suspicious of Trump's claim about the number of people that would be killed if US attacked Iran that it was not proportional to the loss of an un-manned drone, costly lots of money. The number Trump was given that would likely be killed was about 150. His concern seems fishy to me.
Now, think of the young children that have died in the mess at our southern border (to date) or are living in miserable conditions due to not being treated like children should be; i.e. well cared for! He doesn't seem to be worried about them or their health or well being!!!
9
The Trump Doctrine: speak loudly and carry a little stick.
3
Unfortunately, we are biggest perpetrator of terrorism in the middle east.Invading Iraq and killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens in their own country.Dropping thousands of bombs on Iraq and Afghanistan from 29,0000 feet.Using drones to blow up assemblages thought to be harboring "terrorists".We have invaded the region and left a trail of carnage. This is terrorism on a scale that is incomprehensible to most Americans.If this happened to your country wouldn't you want to have nuclear weapons and support what few friends you have.Sadly,I know a number of young ex-military kids who tell me they did it to protect my freedom.With Donald Trump here at home, I've never felt my freedom was more in danger.
8
Reading about the neocons' never-ending war obsession reminds of Groucho Marx's famous remark in Duck Soup, "You can't call off the war now, I've already paid a month's rent on the battlefield!"
10
All true, plus this: Putin didn't want us to attack Iran. Pompeo may want to ignite the End of Days, fool that he is. But FoxNews viewers whose kids and grandkids are still serving in Afghanistan sure don't want to see more bloodshed. And Putin didn't want us to go to war with Iran.
7
Maybe knocking out the house of Said would not be a bad thing?
5
In normal times, war unites a country.
But with this sham of a presidency - and worse all the active efforts he makes to divide the country, all the lies and all the fear mongering - the rationale for any war will be highly suspect.
And as someone pointed out, we haven’t won a major war since WW2 (the first gulf war maybe - but the same neocons took that small victory and converted it into a major loss). Why bother to fight for a fake war which we are not going to win?
7
There is nothing that comes out of Trump's mouth that can be taken at face value. Nothing. We must constantly remember this and seek other information sources.
11
It’s very difficult for me to comprehend that Bolton and Pompeo believe a shooting war with Iran would be a positive and democratic development after the massive failure in Iraq. It’s as if the two are cahooting to displace the Ayatollahs with the Revolutionary Guard who would really accelerate the nuclear weapons program that had been kept in check by a treaty the U.S. suddenly declined to honor. All in all, I’d say we remain under perilous threat from our own public servants.
9
It's the same thing as N.Korea- Trump simply can't prosecute a war which would crowd his "busy" day making enormous strategic decisions. If Iran was an island in the Pacific, we would have destroyed it already. But it's right in the middle of a very tangled knot, with many, many other countries and U.S. interests right next door. Perhaps Putin is the one who called the whole thing off- who knows? Come to think of it, the deal Obama negotiated is starting to look better every day. Better not only for "them"- better for US, too. Ever since they got rid of the US backed Shaw, they have been really teed off at us. We can come to terms with Iran or come to blows. We're simply not powerful enough to impose our will on them like that again. Maybe we could have done more to save lives in Syria and exert more pressure on Assad. But even that apparently got too complicated. But there's still the situation in Yemen- that looks to me like an opportunity to "interfere" in a positive way.
4
Let’s see, Iran now knows it came this close to losing their radar and missile sites, and Trump will be able to say he gave them 3 strikes if/when he does attack. Looks pretty savvy to me.
I fear that Trump is holding off until just before the election so he can rally all the right leaning voters with the cry:"It would be dangerous to change Presidents in the middle of a war."
6
Trump likes chaos and keeping everything off balance... He is a master of that... He also loves having the power to move people and equipment at his will without a real knowledge of why he's doing it. He plays for shock value,which he got a lot of for allegedly calling the strike off minutes before destruction rained... And just as easily he'll call for another strike and not call it off... He wants so badly to be a general in spite of his five deferments..
Bolton and his seven deferments can't wait to be a general either..
10
One of the rare instances where I admire President Trump’s logic on the notion of proportionality. His consideration of 150 human lives balanced on a scale with a high tech machine is a humane one and should be applauded by Americans who claim to value life and freedom - especially so in light the usual calculus of our hawkish foreign policy which has tended to weigh foreigners in Middle East at much less than American lives.
5
The problem, as with nearly every other, is money in politics. As long as those with the most money get to write the rules, public opinion is not important. Weapons manufacturers love wars. And they write checks.
We need mandatory public campaign financing for every election so our government representatives work not for the money, but for the people.
Why isn't this a bigger subject? Ask the media how much money they make from the endless election-industrial complex.
17
@Occupy Government: Probably not as much as it makes on prescription drug advertising.
2
Trump lied about his decision making process, what he knew and when he knew it.
Any op/ed that starts with Trump's statement as foundation is just another diversion from truth.
How about real journalists, not we comfortable armchair speculators, interview key US military commanders, ask the direct question - what orders were they given and when by Trump?
Or was this all set up by the bellicose John Bolton and End-of-Time Pompeo, and Trump just failed to pull the trigger in a fit of panic because he knows he doesn't know what to do?
There is no decision process in the White House- Trump's cabinet pushes their unique agendas, while Trump makes it up as he goes along
24
What I want to know is what is going to be the Iranian response?
Will they call us names to provoke us? We shouldn't.
If they continue to attack us in International waters. Well, remember Syria. No doubt a limited missile attack on military targets. You can bet Congress won"t be involved with that decision.
But I've heard the Iranians are discussing possible diplomatic moves through the Swiss. I'm hoping for a positive outcome. Maybe a new Treaty? The future is never clear.
5
@Artkap
The drone was over Iran.
No? Why has the WH dropped the 'international airspace' claim, then?
If you believe Trump was playing along with his hawk toadies only to catch himself at the last minute, I have a bridge in Brooklyn for you to buy.
Trump responded impulsively - as people with ADHD do - to Iran after he blew up the treaty solely because it came about under President Obama. Perhaps he was egged on by Bolton, et. al. in the pay of the military-industrial complex.
But I have no doubt that he was stopped by a message conveyed from Putin - perhaps through Melania or her parents?
And then he made himself look like a generous guy: "It wasn't proportional. I didn't like it."
And ALL of that after our drone was shot down in Iranian waters. If it had been in open waters, we'd have been shown the coordinates.
You can only lie so much and this old woman remembers the numbers released about casualties in Vietnam. Lies.
25
@Leslie: The Brooklyn Bridge?
Were you not aware that Trump has been trying to sell beachfront properties in Death Valley?
1
All this is nothing more than a case of 'wag the dog'. Let's get (another) war going in order to divert attention from the mess that could be called Trump's government.
12
Anyone who believes that Trump called off a strike because of caualties ignores the basic fact that "Collateral Damage Assessments are ALWAYS done up front. Persons killed is part of that. He had to know because it's required."
Thank you for quoted text, Paul Blaise
We have a prez who credits himself for humanity as a cover up for- at best- his orig negligence in noting 'persons killed' BEFORE ordering a strike...
The 'proportionality' of which he spoke as his rationale wd have been noted At The Very Start of discussion w his advisers --by a competent president...
7
The last thing Trump wants is to be persona non grata like "W" is today and who will remain so well into the future. It would be bad for business post D.C.
We need to add Wolfowitz, Tenet, Chaney, Rumsfeld and others to that ignominious list.
13
Unfortunately William Goldman has passed or he could update his famous line from the Princess Bride "never get involved in a land war in Asia" to never get involved in a land war in the Middle East.
If it was in a movie, perhaps trump would heed that wisdom?
8
My favorite Trump quote during this whole process was when he suggested that at least the drone didn't have a pilot. For a person who says he knows more about the military than anyone, to state that a drone would have a pilot on board speaks volumes.
12
Trump may not wish a confrontation, but there’s his lean and hungry friends.
7
Well it is also breathtaking that the conservative mandarins would take us back to the same economic policies that crashed the economy once, and nearly twice.
They are too oblivious to reality to rule. And shame on us for letting them.
6
No article should accept any statement of this President as true. None of it. Not that he was or wasn't presented with military options. Not that he was or wasn't told about the death toll at the last minute. It could be pure theatre from start to finish.
What we do know is that he is now being taunted by warmongers on the right. God only knows what Netanyahu and the Saudis are also whispering in his ear, tearing at his ego.
This will end badly.
8
Trump knew the casualties figures in advance - or at least he was told the estimates during the planning stage, though he may not have listened. Clearly he got cold feet and changed his mind, using that as an excuse - though it's still not clear if he really ever gave the go-ahead.
So just this time the world is safer because of Trump's cowardice. That's not much to count on.
6
If Trump starts a war with Iran the American public should stage a national strike. Don't go into work, don't buy anything either online or in stores, keep kids home from school, cancel your appointments. Then attend street rallies. We may also need to employ this tactic for when he refuses to leave office in 2020 or 2024.
7
I know this will sound like a conspiracy theory, but with Trump, one never knows for certain.
Could Trump have ordered the airstrikes and then called them off simply to show the power he possesses as the President? It would fit his egomaniac mind. The excuse he used for curtailing the attack doesn't pass the smell test for me. Since when has Trump ever exhibited empathy for anyone, let alone Iranians?
We may or may not ever know the real reason he hesitated, but it was a good thing nonetheless.
5
@allen roberts
Starting a war is never good.
It's amazing that the media still doesn't get Trump.
Trump's a master con artist, and as part of his deal making, HE ALWAYS BLUFFS! He did it again yesterday with his bluff of a round up of a million illegals. Trump's signature move in business has always been to refuse to pay people he owed money to, forcing them to sue him. Then he would settle by negotiating a discounted price in his favor. Another obvious trait is that Trump is a coward. Why do you think he always tries to surround himself with military generals and guys with big cowboy hats?
It seems obvious that Bolton baited the Iranians into shooting down that drone by flying it perhaps slightly over international boundaries. And everyone knows that Trump's briefing on the aborted attack would automatically include casualty estimates. But the media runs with the story that he called off the strike when he found out that 150 people would be killed. How can anyone believe this?
This is why Trump keeps on going back to the show of making a deal with China & North Korea. Trump, with the unlimited Treasury checkbook unhindered by any deficit concerns, knows that he can deliver what North Korea wants in financial aid. All he needs from them is the appearance of a demilitarization. For, as we all should know, Trump appearance is reality to Trump. The China deal will be more complicated to spin. Trump has to get China to agree to trading concessions in return for something they want. But what is that?
5
Yes, Bruce of Dallas. Trump finally scored complete control over the news worldwide. He created a scenario and then was the only one to describe it. All over the world, his description of the event, was news. The headlines were not: "Trump says he aborted his own attack." it was simply "Trump aborts attack." The whole world knew nothing---and still doesn't-- about what happened except what Trump said had happened. Three days later, though some journalists are showing a bit of skepticism, the first headlines have stuck, and even those who despise and fear him are forced to give him credit for doing the right thing. It's the equivalent of heaping praise on a mean child for not biting his sibling. Think about it world: this time you were completely dependent on what Trump told you. And even when his story unravels, and it is shown the whole maneuver was a farce, it will not lessen the impression that he did something good. Of all the news that is produced now, it is Trump's news that gets to us first, creates the greatest impression. When his story, his news, is exposed as a another set of lies, it doesn't matter because we've already moved on. Even this column of Miss Dowd's, as smart as it is, depends almost exclusively on the news as Trump designed it.
13
Shias and Sunnis have been at each other's throats for well over a thousand years. In the Middle East, both groups are ruled by theocratic despots. Taking sides in this feud is a gigantic strategic blunder, one that will not only cost our economy trillions it can't afford but also lay the grounds for terrorism to thrive for decades to come. Donald Trump should allow the hawks and foreign nations to goad and manipulate us into this wholly unnecessary action simply to appear macho. If he is smart, this is the time to use his smarts. Wake up, Mr. President! We are starting at the abyss.
2
It's a terrible feeling to believe that this attack was called off by Trump because he was told to do so by Putin or the Saudi Prince.
But he seems to care more about them than anyone else.
4
I'll offer an assessment on this group of hawks in the White House. They bear a strong resemblance to who must be their prior role models. They are fantastic at wanting the United States to engage our adversaries with military action but have no clue as to either how to win or simply disengage. Simply put, there is no end strategy.
Imagine for a moment that Pompeo and Bolton stood before the American people and said "We're attacking Tehran tonight. In the long run, we may spend over $5 trillion, have troops in Iran indefinitely and don't yet have a plan for victory. Good night and God bless the United States of America."
All those in favor, please raise your right hand.
4
Anyone who eagerly sat at the knee of a man like Roy Cohn may not himself be "evil," but it's pretty clear that he doesn't know it when he sees it. Trump may not consciously set out to "hurt' people (he's too hungry for admiration), but as his many bankruptcies show, he's ended up hurting quite a few people and never expressed the slightest remorse for doing so.
9
It's been obvious from Trump's poor oratory and minuscule vocabulary that he would never have come up with the word "proportionate" on his own. Someone sane must have his ear.
13
Many years ago a young businessman was being mentored by, at the time the most evil man in NYC, Roy Cohn. He of McCarthy era fame. Cohn taught the young man that well calculated lying, cheating, denying, never, ever apologize, are skills that will serve him well in his upward climb in the NYC business world. The result Donald Trump.
Revisit trumps history just from the ride down the elevator at trump tower step by step and it becomes apparent that Cohn's teaching have served trump well.
Cohn is gone but his disciple carries on his teachings that would make Cohn proud if he were here to witness.
It's obvious that a war was averted by not attacking Iran over the drone destruction and we should be glad for that, but I hesitate to give credit to a man who following the teaching stated previously precipitated the the dangerous situation then extricated himself from the consequences by making a "presidential decision".
2
Please don't award him a compliment when it is all by default. It sounds as though you've bought into him having some rational reflection. Hardly! He staged this all to make him look as though he listens only to himself --the stable genius that he is. Puhleeze!
5
Visions of the Trump Tehran tower held the President back. With a city in rubble, prospects for that project also got bombed.
But let’s see, the fool orders a foolhardy strike with a reported dearth of information (e.g., number of expected fatalities) and then wants praise for rescinding the order at T minus 10 minutes because he claims he brilliantly asked the most basic of questions - the answer to which was most likely one of the first pieces of data provided to him with the attack options.
The fool is loaded with cocky.
3
Most Times readers will note the $5.9 trillion price tag for the post 9/11 wars and think, “what a waste.” Unfortunately for many advocates of our powerful military their response is “Ka-Ching!” Unless that connection becomes more overt, the drums of war will continue to be beaten.
5
First time I’ve laughed out loud while performing the morning ritual of anxiously reading the news to see whether Treasonous Trump has triggered an end of the world as we know it war yet. Thanks Maureen.
2
What would we do if Russia or China prevented all international trade by the US, ruining our economy and impoverishing our citizens. This followed by provocatively placing a war carrier group with orders to cruise just off the coast of Florida or California for the purpose of tempting America to start a war?
What do we gain by fighting a war on behalf of and for the Saudi's against their Shia rivals? Saudis are state killers of an American journalist that with our help bomb & starve Yemeni children.
Are the Iranian people and the hardliners among them likely to thank us for fomenting war with them? That should work out well in coming decades. Will our actions make the Mid East safer or bring Iran closer to the western world? Might that be better accomplished by removing the threat of nuclear weapons, empowering Iran's moderates and luring the Irani people with trade and liberties that comes by interacting with the western world?
What do these remarkably small men think they are achieving? They have shown the bad actors of the world there is no point in negotiating and signing treaties with America and that their only choices are
1. Allow America to subjugate them and set their policy, or,
2. Be starved and expect invasion by America, or,
3. Develop nuclear weapons.
3
That anyone, anyone, would believe that 45 “pulled back” because innocent people would be killed is in itself unbelievable; the man is a pack of lies piled upon more lies. Don’t be fooled and think for one second that he did a “good thing”. There’s a reason he hired Bolton & Pompeo-so that he could have it both ways and keep the electorate wondering who’s the bad guy, or is it the good guy?
4
Ms Dowd, thanks (again) for your pinpoint accuracy in “explaining” Trump. It must be particularly galling to him to have an intelligent female, using humor and wit, psychologically expose his shortcomings to the world.
1
Perceived strength or weakness is moot when you’re a pawn, in this case of the Saudis.
2
As quoted here from Fox & Friends: "All our enemies are watching.”
That's the worldview I am sick to death of seeing my tax dollars wasted on. And I am sick to death of seeing that worldview elbow out of the way every other problem this country, here at home, needs to address.
When your decisions are based on "All our enemies are watching," all your enemies have won.
4
Welcome to Donald Trump’s America—where immigrant children are caged and psychologically damaged, where foreign policy is reduced to infantile tweets, where women are viewed as nothing more than headless mannequins, where people of color are scapegoats for all that ails this country, where judges are condemned for upholding the rule of law, where government workers exist only to serve the king, where white evangelicals routinely ignore many of the sacred tenets of their religion in support of a morally bankrupt demagogue, and where an entire party has been reduced to a gaggle of sycophants. Forgive me for not praising the serial arsonist for temporarily extinguishing this fire.
It is time for us to snap out of our coma of indifference and take a stand. The doomsday clock is ticking. Thank you Ms. Dowd for turning up the volume on the alarm.
7
Unreal that we owe the pullback to Tucker Carlson. When even a Fox News host is urging restraint, it does make you wonder why Bolton and the hard liners want a war in the first place?
What’s the upside?
2
Trump knows that a war with Iran would prove a disaster to his poll numbers, despite the flag-waving of the evangelicals. His pull-back on Iran is not discretion.
2
@Artis
But the right thing to do.
Trump is writing history.
He thinks it’s “Create Your Own Adventure.”
He has no policy, no plan, no values.
He has no idea where we’re going.
Conditions are excellent, Mr Putin.
We are in more trouble than we can possibly comprehend.
2
While always reassuring to hear that our Military stands strong, the powers of China or Iran are not being rattled, but our domestic President, surrounded by war-mongers, ill-advised and ill measured.
America will likely always have foes adept at placing pins in our pin-cushion. Trump can be hawkish in other ways in demanding that the children at our border be given a chance to live, and Keeping America Great is not wandering off to a country called 'War'. A great majority of the populace do not know the difference between Iran and Iraq, and our Veterans in the name of Democracy are not killing-machines.
Trump knows this, and so does the greater majority of the U.S. of A. We are about to celebrate 'Independence Day', in remembrance of Freedom, Justice and Equality, and while signs of retaliation are being aired, 'Trump's War' is taking place within, where the President has no intention of spending his last days out of office, behind a fortress, if he declares that he is taking us on the long red road of no return.
'Bolton & Co.' should expect their walking papers sooner than Christmas.
Happy 4th of July to All and Sundry.
2
It looks like kid's stuff now but I remember being shocked when we found out Reagan had gone behind
Carter's back and made a deal with the Iranians. They
would delay the release of the hostages long enough for him to take office, giving him all the credit and
denying any to Carter.
8
Word has it that there was a manned plane in Iran territorial waters and an unmanned drone outside of those waters.
Iranians chose to down the unmanned drone as a warning
about the aggressive manned flight.
Anyone corroborate this?
3
Which Americans make money off of this potential war? That's the root question. That is the only question for every single action taken by Trump and Congressional Republicans.
7
Donald Trump is still a Democrat, and this point needs to be sung from the rooftops until every presidential candidate running to unseat him hears it. He's played at being a Republican up until now, engorging himself on Republican talk media and doing everything they've wanted him to do. But deep in his heart, he is a Democrat who does not want to get drawn into a new war when we still haven't won the old ones. He has learned the game and played it well, but the game has ended.
@Mark Lebow
I guess if Trump is a Democrat, then the next President will definitely be a Democrat.
1
Trump's instincts that the Iran deal was a mistake were correct. They were using the money that flowed in to fund vicious regional proxy wars. Much like the former Soviet Union, Iran seeks to export its ideology via terror and war. Containing them with what amounts to a cold war strategy is the best approach.
@Bob
No, they just want US to leave them and their families alone....for once.
Russia wants, I think, to re-annex territories it lost in the profound diplomacy of the early '80's.
Russia is, by far, the greater danger.
And guess who Trump has a hot line to?
1
Ms. Dowd! It must have been tough to praise President Trump who actually is not getting credit for good work he is doing. The frenzied media is constantly attacking and focusing on only negatives. This is a huge deal averting a war which is not needed. From a ordinarily citizen point of view, I don’t know what Iran is doing to affect my day to day life. If at all it is us who are sending drones and war ships to escalate tension. When will we learn not to get involved if it doesn’t affect us.
2
@Elu Appu
Bellicose, weak, indecisive...
That's what it looks like from over here.
The way to Trump's heart is through his wallet, so looking at the economic ramifications of going to war with Iran and convincing Trump that it would be bad for him, is likely THE way to prevent something from happening.
2
With the bar set so low for this President, maybe we should constantly praise him for NOT taking ill-advised action. So thank you Mr. President for NOT invading Iran, for NOT closing the border with Mexico, for NOT firing Robert Mueller, and for NOT launching mass arrests of illegal immigrants, Keep up the good non-work.
1284
@Jay Orchard That made me laugh out loud, Jay. Thanks.
77
@Jay Orchard
Yes, we must not forget that the only 'work' he does alone is his child-like Tweets. Everything else is done with the advice and full support of the Republican Party, its warlords, its rogue Capitalism, its Racism - its extreme right factions. So, when he stiffens his spine - we must loudly say THANK YOU FOR DOING THE RIGHT THING!!
77
@Jay Orchard notes: "...maybe we should constantly praise him for NOT taking ill-advised action"
I think that is Trump's entire modus operandi. First he announces some outrageous plan. Pick one: Invade Iran? Impose tariffs on Mexico? De-fund Special Olympics? Then he cancels the outrageous plan to the applause and admiration of Fox News and his base.
Nothing happens, and Trump is a hero. What could be easier?
109
Trump walked out of the deal with Iran without any clear policy initiative to replace it . He created this crises in the first place . I do not think we should praise him for walking back after going to the edge of the precipice . Next time he might jump . He is acting like the nurse in Germany that was recently accused of provoking cardiac arrests in the patients he was talking care of , and then , gaining praise by trying to resuscitate them . Another example is the fireman that starts a fire so as to be the first trying to extinguish it . The nurse , the fireman and the man in the Oval Office are , all of them , people with anti social tendencies and personality problems . We have a pyromaniac in the Oval Office . That is the real crises .
21
Except that something about the retraction is not sanguine. Trump was made aware of the potential casualties way before the ten minute time frame. Trump does not care about collateral damage--it is not in his psyche. There is an alternative explanation. It will become clear this next week.
11
@Paul Abeln: Cyberattacks are easier for both sides to deny.
Don't give Trump to much credit. When the supersonic spy plane was shot down our high altitude bombers were in the air heading for targets.
However, the Iranian missile defense system was far more sophisticated that we projected. Leading to the recall of our bombers. US policy is high on bombast but American casualty averse.
11
@simjam: This is what Iran shot down. It is an automated U-2 that flies at extreme altitude in the very narrow speed range between stalling and going supersonic. It is not very maneuverable or evasive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_RQ-4_Global_Hawk#/media/File:Northrop_Grumman_RQ-4_Global_Hawk.jpg
@Steve Bolger
Mr. Bolger, I don't understand your point. That the US bombers could not have been shot down. And what do you base your information on?
@Steve Bolger
So, the warhawks didn't think Iran had the weapons to do it. I looked like it was right over their position in the videos. Chinese weaponry, by all indicators
If we go in, don't think China won't join in with their oil coming from Iran.
WWV, baby. Notice how the climate heat has gone up since the wars started in '03? I sure have
1
No one is asking this very important question-what was the expected casualty count for the American forces carrying out the threatened retaliatory strike? I am very sure that Iran has much better defensive capabilities than any other country America has meddled with since Vietnam. Maybe Iran’s supporters China and Russia also had some wisdom to offer in this regard. I’m sure Mr. Boulton and Mr. Pompeo forgot to mention it.
11
If there is one thing we have learned over the past two years, "never over analyze Trump." It's a waste of time, kills healthy brain cells we all might need for survival if the 2020 election goes bad. If one truly wants to believe Trump walked back after hearing the mortality count of 150, he will reach, if he already hasn't, the death rate of children in the immigration camps. If 150 Americans were to die because of some action he took, he would never look back: The price of doing business. Individuals much smarter than I are of the opinion, this attack was halted because if something did occur during the Democratic debates, Trump would steal the limelight. Everything he thinks, everything he imagines and everything he does is all about him.
14
While the thought of a disproportionate response with a loss of life is Trump's stated reason to stand down, it was the spectre of a defeat in 2020,given the nation's weariness with endless mid-East interventions, that motivated his decision.
11
Dizzy Dean, the great but eccentric pitcher of the Cardinals, I believe, was the one who invented the Trump strategy. He would walk the bases full so he could strike out the side. This is not a sustainable strategy in baseball or military confrontations. That is why it is so rarely used. I disagree with giving Trump credit for stopping what he never should have started in the first place.
9
Honestly, I think trump creates these maybe I will, maybe I won’t, or his classic, we’ll see moments for the drama and the sound bites.
An attention junkie is our president.
15
The reason Trump's decisions are on again off again is because they do not stem from any reasoned`consideration of a problem. They are entirely the result of frequent assessments of a particular decision on his principal concern, his ego. There is no way to make a permanent decision on what his ego requires because electoral and other events are conditioned daily by new details and concerns. You cannot predict his decisions, nor can he, nor can he stick to any decision in the face of constant change in the political climate.
So speculation on how firm or permanent a decision might be is a total waste of time.
15
Maybe we can keep DT standing down by reminding him that John McCain wanted to “Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran”
Surely he’ll want to do the opposite
11
“I always attack back...except of course when there is a real war, and it is my life at risk, in which case I’ll pay my doctor to write that I have a mean case of bone spurs, and, gosh, will just have to sit this one out...X 100.”
24
In addition, like Vietnam, Iran is so far away.
This particular Administration is chock full of “faux tough guys”. John Bolton is near the top of the list...a guy of my generation who probably has done nothing tougher than elbowing a small child out of the way.
Lord, how I loathe people like this. Optics are everything to them. Casualties? Well, to them, casualties are always “acceptable”.
So, Mr, John Bolton, where were you 50 years ago when me and my friends were getting shot at?
58
When Fred Trump found Donald's switchblade he acquired in Manhattan as a 12 year-old it was the last straw. Fred chose the military school option. Perhaps that would straighten out the neglected, violent brat.
What would Fred do now that his incorrigible spawn went to Washington and got bombs?
Here is a recipe for making a megalomaniac:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/young-donald-trump-military-school/2016/06/22/f0b3b164-317c-11e6-8758-d58e76e11b12_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.8313da7cdafc
Interviews with the most ignorant executive in the world, ever, on Making Everything Great Ashes:
https://thinkprogress.org/9-terrifying-things-donald-trump-has-publicly-said-about-nuclear-weapons-99f6290bc32a/
I
4
Your best column EVER!
Thank you, Maureen.
3
Back in 2003, I recall a truism about the neo-con hawks was, “Everyone wants to go to Bsghdad. Real men want to go to Tehran.” This quip may have been started by Bolton’s mustache.
6
You can't believe anything Trump says especially that he could care less about the lives of 150 Iranians let alone the lives of 150 immigrant children if it would get him one hand clap.
10
You have characterized Trump as a “faux tough guy”. Now we know he is a faux humanitarian.
4
It's all part of the 'Trump Daily Drama', staged and choreographed. 'We were cocked and loaded but I called it off', stop buying this nonsense!
Drama, drama, drama - he thrives on drama like we need oxygen. Oh, and please stop fact checking him, we're over that for a long time now.
6
Aren't we relieved and happy that he is faux.
1
Deep, deep in thought Maureen. Very colorful writings. Virtual political poetry. Also, taking a lot of chances with that brain of yours?
1
He says he changed his 'mind' because he found out that 150 Iranians would die....
In truth, his advisors told him he'd lose 150 votes in Pennsylvania....
Why does ANYONE believe ANYTHING he says ??
Come on, Mo.... come one......
14
I don't get any comfort, as other's also don't, from the idea that this man of no principles, no ideology, no concern except his own inflated sense of himself, can turn on a dime, depending on which idiot talking head gets his attention at any moment.
As you mention, next time he may turn off the TV after fawning hannity speaks.
6
Clucking war hens like John Bolton, Ted Cruz. MARIC Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, Don, Jr., Ivanka, Eric and Tiffany Trump along with Jared Kushner are all bent on fighting by tweeting and speaking nicknames and slurs while watching Fox News and playing golf.
They are hardly blowing in comparison to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.
5
Maybe Trump’s handler Putin did call off this catastrophic decision. Since Russia owns Mitch and most of the Republicans, probably some Democrats as well, I would be comfortable with Putin calling the shots. At this dangerous juncture of self preservation, I would welcome outside interference. Putin is ruthless for sure, but he is sane and that would be welcome in the USA at this point.
2
I like being the one percent and fending off all this serious TDS. Sometimes, when you parry with an opponent, bluffing usually pays off. I love what the guy is doing. Keep it up Trump. I will now entertain serious, unending and profane comments
@Patrick Turner: Trump's own time horizon is too short to remember what he said 10 minutes ago. The man operates at the level of a child overturning board games.
11
Your analogy loses me when you imply that Trump would know how to fence when it is doubtful he knows what a rapier is.
His “strategy” has all of the forethought of someone randomly jamming a fork into an electrical socket.
2
@Patrick Turner, OK, we get it. What is it that you like about the Iran situation? I mean, the article's topic is another middle east war. Bluffing has its place, but Bolton isn't bluffing. Pompeo really does want to send your kids to Iran. It's not a bluff, and trump is out of his depth.
Seems trump supporters can't discuss anything without screaming TDS!
If you'll 'entertain' my question, do you think Bolton/Pompeo's warmongering is the way to go?
4
trump may have done the right thing this time, but not because he does right things. He decided at the last minute that Americans dying was a bad thing, but was probably told much earlier that that would happen. He just needed to save face because he had done so many stupid things to lead us to this moment. Dropping the Iran agreement and talking tough to try to sound smart. trump is a fool and should be led away from the White House as quickly as possible along with the rest of his ridiculous administration.
5
@MLE53: Trump ordered a cyber attack instead. Its damage is invisible, and if anyone is killed the connection is tenuous.
There's a Shia Apocalypse (going on right) Now in Yemen, and Trump's revered business buddies from Wahabi Arabia would like to expand it and transfer it to the Shia heartland without themselves having to pay the tall price for the dirty work. The hard-liner lobbyists and hawks for Israel are all-in, a very short-sighted strategy, since it would decisively weaken one of their two arch-enemies that they, if rational, would prefer to see balancing each other out by keeping each other busy with their interesting varieties of eschatologicaly jealous, 'zealous,' and vengeful primitive lunacy projections. Putin is difficult to gauge and second-guess here. He got himself into an an opportunistic alliance with Iran and its more or less satellite regimes to serve his strategic interests, which has him somewhat invested in their fate now, but his overarching interest is helping to engineer an oil price hike, and a war of America with Iran would greatly advance that goal. The lobbyists and hawks of the US military industrial complex are the most baffling and cynical one among the four horses of the Shia Apocylypse flirting with pushing humanity to a brink dwarfing the Cuba crisis. Lindsey Graham giving Trump his blessing to bomb over a disputed drone: really? For now, the start of the war with Iran is only postponed. After all of America's war and regime change disasters within one (Trump's) lifetime, when will it ever learn? Jared Kushner and Rupert Murdoch will have busy back channels.
6
When we initiated a hostile action, without any provocation, toward the sovereign nation of Iraq in 2003, I was horrified at what America had become. Little did I know that my horror would be eclipsed by the unimaginable scenario of a Trump presidency and all its inept and dishonest doings. Please turn out to vote for our democracy in 2020
13
I would not read as much into Trump's stated reasons as the press has done. He is, after all, a congenital liar, but there is often a kernel of truth in there somewhere if you can stomach sifting the entrails of a Trump pronouncement. I think the problem here was the causes belli was lacking. Almost certainly the drone was over Iranian airspace, if not when shot down, proximate thereto and in any event, the shooting seems to be the work of a rogue Republican Guard commander, not the Iranian government. I have no doubt Trump was concerned he could find himself in the position of the guy who after being run off the road because he was on his cell phone and failed to notice he had crossed the yellow line, gets out of the car and in a rage fires his gun at the receding object of his anger only to hit grandma coming home from the store. In short, 150 lives was a motivator but not because it was not proportionate but because maybe, just maybe, he doesn't really think he can shoot someone in Fifth Avenue without consequences to his brand.
8
Trump made a last minute decision on strikes. He saw the abyss at the last minute. Sounds a lot like Obama and Syrian strikes after the "red line" had been trampled and many innocents had died. Didn't we all feel better that the Russians helped out by brokering a deal on Syrian chemical weapons?
1
Two men--Sec. of War Mike Pompeo and National Insecurity Adviser, John "Yosemite Sam" Bolton--are the ones blowing hard to push Trump over the brink. Will they be tuckering Fox host Carlson out? Will Trump's narcissism radar say he'll get more love and admiration for pushing his big button? This sad psychodrama would be a parody on human folly if the consequences weren't so grave and the world's choir of Congress, the House Democrats, the Democrats running for president and the Europeans weren't watching slack-jawed in silence.
4
Trump will say and do anything to avoid being removed from office because once he's removed he faces the legitimate possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison. I imagine that possibility consumes his life 24/7.
Tump is neither mentally stable nor morally guided - in jargon, he's a loose cannon in command of the most powerful country on earth!
Unfortunately, because the Republicans do not have a strong, worthy and patriotic opponent willing to defend the Constitution and the rule of law, and who shirks at defending democratic norms and principles, we face an unprecedented disaster.
America's future is like climate change. By the time most people realize what's happened, it will be too late!
7
Strap Bolton to a missile and fire him into Iran since he is such a fan of war. He is currently trying to destroy the US from within, perhaps he can do the same for Iran. The US would certainly be a better place without him.
11
Ms. Dowd, your admonishment that the Iranians are great negotiators with a bad hand, and Trump is a terrible negotiator with a good hand is the wisest observation possible, one that I will use from now on. All commentators should begin saying this. If only Trump could listen.
7
I've been asking myself why all this commotion for shooting down a drone? It's not like it has people in it. So why take the world to the brink of war without even consulting the opposition party? Now I know: 130 million dollars is the cost of the drone. Always about money. Is it made of solid gold? Obviously not from Walmart. Obviously loaded with all kinds of technology for spying about all kinds of things. Add trump has already told over 10,000 lies this is only a few more to add to the pile. He could care less about 150 people as evidenced by the suffering of all the migrants. He was in Iran air space definitely. He is a lying cheating very no good man and we the world over are stuck with him.
7
As Kushner embraces the Saudi Prince who recently dismembered a journalist, we rarely hear mention of 9/11 and it's true enemy: THE SAUDIS. So, we demolished Iraq, looted it's treasures while Cheney and family got a billion through Halliburton for rebuilding that never happened and now Bolton wants to relive that war in Iran. My question is: who is going to financially profit from the slaying of the Iranian people?
12
Reality tv star certainly knows how to keep us watching.
5
Trump should be awarded the Nobel price of Peace for not stumbling into a war and saving 150 lives.
And he should be retired to the pastures of his many golf clubs for just not being up to par with the requirements of the job is stumbled into.
After all he canceled the Iranian nuclear deal under the pretext of what it achieved: preventing a nuclear Iran.
The Iran crisis is another one of his making, but one where he can’t just lie himself into a pretend victory and walk away.
6
I think the press should stop talking about the wimp factor unless it makes a strong case for why it should never come into play. George H.W. Bush showed restraint. His son and ironically Dick Cheney, who got five deferments, did not. This act by Trump is the most responsible I have seen during his presidency but I agree he shouldn't have two hawks like Bolton and Pompeo in such high positions. And he should NEVER turn to talk show hosts on Fox for military advice. I just went to an exhibit of Obama photos by Pete Souza and boy did they make me feel nostalgic. Yet the whole time he was in office, members of the press said he was too calm and cerebral. No, he was intelligent and thoughtful. He looked at the strong possibilities of For Every Action there is a Reaction. Like war. If you want advice from movies, go with Jimmy Stewart.
8
It's not about what makes sense, it's about what makes money - for Raytheon, Northrop-Grumman, Halliburton, Boeing etc. CBS has a commentator, retired Admiral Sandy Winifeld who bemoaned that the US would "lose face" if we didn't retaliate for Iran shooting down our drone, which was in their space (maybe). Good grief. They weren't in our space. We were spying on them. Oh, and the guy works for and is being paid by Raytheon! He's on their board of directors! These so called news organizations are complicit with the war machine that runs our country.
10
Trump blundered into nothing. Everything about the Iranian ‘deal’ was farcical, so much so that Obama never presented it to the Senate as a treaty for ratification knowing to would never pass. The plane load of midnight cash was the final clue to what a joke this ‘deal’ was. It looked more like a drug deal or mafia payoff than statesmanship.
Trump made a well-reasoned Executive decision. It pains writers like Maureen to simply give him credit where it’s due which reveals a constrained tunnel vision & obvious hypocrisy in their thinking. Had Obama made the same decision, Maureen would be praising his deft diplomacy.
2
The version of recent events between the U.S. and Iran that is being dissected by the media is a version proffered entirely by Donald Trump and his administration. As has been proven countless times, much of what the public hears from their leaders in the run-up to war is later proved to be lies. On top of that, the president is serial, habitual, instinctive liar of the highest order.
With potentially catastrophic war in the powder keg region of the middle east at stake, I would much rather be reading what journalists have uncovered about the real facts, rather than media reactions to this bizarre administration's propaganda.
3
The visual of a line of sycophants lined up next to Donald’s good ear with advice for how he should decide what to do is hysterical until you realize the last voice may be the wrong one.
5
I don't think the President "did something right" on purpose. I think he watched the movie The American President and found out what the word "proportionate" meant.
4
Your opening paragraph was accurate, but he had to know about the 150 lives at the very first briefing and ignored it! It's how the military does a Collateral Damage Assessments all the time - every time up front. Yes, he stepped back from the brink and we can be happy. It was not his first inclination. That is not something we can be happy about.
4
The most likely scenario is that Iran's friend, Vladimir Putin, told Trump to back off -- and Trump complied.
To believe that Trump cares about the 'collateral damage' of 150 Iranian lives strains credulity.
If he doesn't care about his inhuman actions at the Southern border, it is very unlikely that his innate humanity would prevent him from killing 150 Shiite Muslims thousands of miles away.
3
Trumps modus operandi is
1. Seek a hot issue
2. Get everyone on fire
3. Keep adding fuel to the fire
4. Blame everyone else for the fire
5. Let the fire burn in all directions
6. Fire gets too hot
7. Douse the fire he created
8. Claim to be the hero and receive praise
Reminds me of a five year old.
16
Trump should fire Bolton and Pompeo immediately, and then turn off the TV as he seems only to watch Fox News. He needs to stop listening to Netanyahu and the Saudis. Back away from the mideast. It is not in U.S. strategic interest to be involved there, except to give aid to the refugees who have fled war.
4
Simple answer.
Trump determined war at this time would damage his prospects second term presidency.
www.InquiryAbraham.com
5
Trump is amoral. He didn't want to be President, just wanted to improve his brand. Until recently, he avoided be "presidential"--Mitch McConnell was the President (Trump just played one on TV). But the exigencies of the Presidency have crept in and he has less support from Republicans who thought they could have their way with him. Trump Peter-principled out as a builder--so there is no category to describe how ill-suited he is now. Now he is afraid of being President. Blaming others is not policy.
6
The truth of the matter is that Tucker Carlson told Trump he could forget about being re elected if he got into a war with Iran. That’s the language Trump understands. The comment about 150 people being killed is just crocodile tears meant for the media and the media fell for it.
7
Glad he pulled back but don't believe it was serious compassion for 150 people, not even Americans. Think about all the people at our southern border who are abused on a daily basis. Think too of the dead children as a result of Trump's policies.
No, I don't think compassion had anything to do with not attacking Iran. Yes, it is good he cancelled it, but let's not be naive and/or stupid by attributing real moral value to him for making that decision.
6
Actually, neither Bolton nor Pompeo has any particular expertise or knowledge that qualifies either of them to offer advice on Iran, or anywhere else. Why would Trump, who prides himself on paying attention only to his own instincts, pay attention to anything either of those two told him? They know nothing more than he does about the region or military strategy. It's the blind leading the blind, and we'll all helpless against the ignorance of these three stooges.
3
Ms Dowd, 1 vote here that it is/was just another of Trumps PR moves. He is trying to be a more kinder, gentler president as 2020 looms over his ego.
1
Trump should not be surprised that he is now staring into an abyss that he dug himself. Government by chaos will eventually result in mass casualties it is merely a question of when not if.
4
Brilliant, exquisitely written column, Ms. Dowd. Too bad it'll only be read by the "choir."
I live in Texas. I have had this argument before and it is...extremely troubling.
"And thank God — and Allah."
Today is Sunday, the Christian sabbath. Maureen Dowd's column always comes out on Sunday. Christians have a day of rest on Sunday, a day to celebrate God and their savior Jesus Christ. Saturday is the Jewish sabbath. Friday Is the Muslim sabbath. Each one of these sabbaths celebrates the same God, because there is only one God. Put another way, there is no God but God.
Entire wars have been fought over the implications of Dowd's fallacious syllogism. Millions of people have died, convinced they were doing God's work. I have personally argued with folks who insisted that there is the Christian God and a separate, inferior Muslim God.
Dowd strives to be witty and entertaining. That throwaway comment was dangerous.
But who cares, right?
2
Most things about this story is a lie like most of Trump's corrupt motivations for his actions. Israel , the holder of 50 Senate seats spending the US blood and treasure again having us beat up the neighbors. How many trillions are spent in our non stop Mideast wars? The creation of ISIS, the hordes of refugees destabilizing European allies. All things to America's concern for our ally, which mostly resides in the hearts of defense contractors and those on AIPACS pay list.
Give me a President who will focus on replacing fossil fuel , and tell the land grabbing , bully in the mideast to go it alone on their own shekel .
5
So, the Evangelical Christian Pompeo believes that God's hand is favoring an attack on Iran (to 'save' Israel?), and John Bolton's brutish instincts wants war against infidels (ugh! The medieval Crusades revisited!).
We are current led by people without knowledge, reason, and adult judgement, who have a world view that augers for violence as a "solution" to the complexities of our world.
These are not statesmen; they are cartoon figures born of the same small-minded bluster that their boss in the White House projects.
Shameful leadership at this time of crisis!
8
When making foreign policy decisions like this, you should ask- if the US wasn't isolated by the Atlantic ocean on one side, the Pacific on the other and close friends to the south and north, with very little chance of of a domestic soil military attack by the people you want to attack, would you still attack?
3
Thank goodness senior advisor Tucker Carlson was there just in time to rebut senior advisor Brian Kilmeade’s call for war. Our Fox News-driven travesty of an administration managed to do the right thing — at least for now.
4
What did trump know at 10 minutes before canceling the strike that he did not know 20 minutes before canceling the strike ? Or for that matter, before even requesting any strike in the first place?
Sure, I'm OK with our nitwit president using the most powerful military machine known to mankind as a public relations prop for his re-election campaign.
What me worry - Alfred E. Neuman
Maybe this time for the first time in history, using a fake war of choice will actually work AGAINST re-election.
2
Just imagining how $5.9 trillion invested in infrastructure, education, health care and environment would have transformed this country.
15
Is there a connection between Shanahan's exit and the emergence of the usual suspected hawks? He left on Thursday noon and by nightfall Trump is ready to go to war with Iran. Did Pompeo or Bolton dig up Shanahan's dirt and leak it to hasten his exit? I think there are a lot of behind the scenes hustlers awaiting the riches of war.
11
What so many seem to forget, or perhaps they're just too young to remember, is that Iran has been at war with the US for 40 years, the first shot being the takeover of the US embassy in Teheran and the holding of US personnel as hostages for over a year. The crisis ended only after the ineffectual Jimmy Carter was replaced by Ronald Reagan, who convinced the mullahs in Iran that continuing to hold the hostages would end badly. Iran has been the prime instigator of terrorism worldwide since then and their goal of nuclear capability was never abandoned, despite all the empty promises made to a second ineffectual President, Barack Obama.
Until Iran decides to get rid of the theocracy that currently rules and replaces it with leadership that recognizes that world peace and order is better for all, confrontation will be unavoidable and will only get worse.
@beefrits: Really? I think the Republicans made false promises to the Iranian revolutionaries that holding onto the hostages to elect Reagan would result in more favorable treatment of Iran by the US.
5
"A rare case of Trump’s bloated ego working to our advantage."
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
9
But this last-minute decision makes me think he isn't thinking, or his team, temporary as they may be, isn't strong enough or careful enough or complete. Did he change his mind so his fox entertainment friends and base could say he saved us from a war? Do I doubt everything he does? Yes. He lies so much that I can't trust his actions, his words, his tweets. He seems itchy for a war.
And for you who think he's doing great things for the country, please don't forget this: "There are good people on both sides. You know it and I know it". I believe he believes this, which is why he should not be our president.
4
I'm happy to read that Ms. Dowd is stressing the importance of restraint, and that serious strikes against Iran would bring disaster. Still, she insults Trump while delivering this message, and this undercuts her message, and goads Trump.
The majority of the major media outlets are, in effect, cheerleading for terrible conflict with Iran, which truly does not deserve such behavior on the U.S. part.
The news outlets are drumming Trump's behavior, in this case "indecisiveness", as the major story/issue, as opposed to reinforcing how destructive and avoidable such conflict with Iran is.
The emphasis needs to be taken off of Trump, and placed where it should be: that such unnecessary war with Iran would tear apart the remains of the Middle East, and would cause violence and great economic dislocation and pain throughout the rest of the World.
7
@James Barth
Er…..the majority of media are not in effect (whatever that means) cheerleading for a conflict with Iran. Quite the reverse.
1
Which insurance company says, "You're in good hands with . . . "? Well, believe it or not, and I suppose most Democrats won't, when it comes to foreign policy, you're in good hands with Donald Trump! He's the least trigger-happy president we've had in some time. He threatens, he scowls, but he steps back; he negotiates--why? The U.S. economy used to fuel unlimited military spending, it used to be said that the our military budget was the equal of all others combined. We can no longer afford that, our economy is now only primus inter pares, other nations are catching up; if they can't project force today as we can, they will be able to do so in the future. Why do we have so many unmet needs for infrastructure, education, housing, etc.? Because we overspend on defense. Mr. Trump may not come out and say that, but he knows it. He is the model for future presidents; he is actually the president of the future. You'd thing people on the left would recognize and praise him for that; I suppose they won't.
2
@Ronald B. Duke: The US "defense" budget is higher than ever before right now.
4
Are you kidding? Trump has requested huge increases in the military budget. He may have stepped back from the abyss this time but he is definitely a fan of the military industrial complex.
3
@Steve Bolger; Your final words, 'right now', are key; U.S. military hegemony can't continue. U.S. military spending in relative terms must decline. Mr. Trump's apparent aggressiveness is America's last fling, the final attempt to make the most of a fundamentally weakening position. He understands the true situation; he talks loudly in the hope that people will not notice that he carries a relatively decreasingly big stick.
What collusion? What investigation? What taxes?
5
@Greg Metz: And what credible rape accusations?
2
Trump goaded Maureen Dowd and all into believing he really intended to bomb Iran I suggest it was always his plan to have you think he was ready to bomb but always planned that pullback so even Maureen Dowd thought so well of him Wow what an actor!!
10
Spot on!
1
Where’s Putin in all this? Could Trump have been acquiescing to his master in Russia? Makes more sense to me. This is more likely a case of blackmail than conscience.
6
The best accounting for the tragic American war in Iraq under George W. Bush that I have seen to date is Michael Mazarr’s Leap of Faith. And the neocons pushing Trump are squarely repeating the blunders that led to that fiasco.
6
Hilary warned us. She ask the question, do you really want to give him the codes. Do you really want him to be the person who answers that 3 am call?
26
Trump can safe face with Iran by kicking out Bolton and Pompeo, saying they misadvised him on Iran and the nuclear deal, so he can negotiate a new nuclear deal and tell his base he did a much better job than Obama and that he prevented another costly Middle East war that they don't want.
3
Trump has just demonstrated one more example of the his innate firefighter-arsonist anomaly.
[Source: https://www.firerescue1.com/Arson-Investigation/articles/134931018-Understanding-the-firefighter-arsonist/]
It is yet another performance in which he counts on the media to hail him as a hero - which he most definitely is NOT. He listens to no one and simply takes the path that will generate the most attention from the media.
He created the explosive situation by pulling out of the Iran Nuclear Agreement. Constant threats to Iran ensue, and it now rages on a daily basis with no obvious resolution in sight. In the meantime, he plays with the public by making the entire episode mirror a TV series with constant cliffhangers, in which he is the pivotal character.
The same scenario goes for the situation with "the border crisis" and recently announced policy of deporting "millions" of immigrants. He creates a false flash-point, publicizes it gets the attention from the public that he desires, and then backs off under the guise of humanitarian concerns (with the proviso of a two-week delay). Yet another cliffhanger with which to garner attention.
Meanwhile, the military has no consistent clue about which direction Trump will follow, and the immigrant population is relegated to pawns in a convoluted chess game of xenophobia and hatred.
Trump's malignant narcissism know no bounds, and the entire globe is suffering as a result. So much worse than simply "Sad!"
17
@wysiwyg Thanks for your insightful analysis. Please share it with Ms. Dowd and other media pundits who continue to ascribe human attributes to the sociopath in chief, leaving the false and dangerous impression with low-income and Independent voters that he is redeemable. He is not.
Trump is a narcissist, a racist and a sadist. He and his maniacal enablers must be removed from their positions of power. They have brought us to the brink of Armageddon. Innocent little children are dying in the camps -- whatever we call them -- at our Southern border.
Impeachment hearings should have been started yesterday.
trump is never reasonable, thoughtful or strategic...I don't buy it for a second.
15
Leave it to our reality TV-show president to adopt Fox News as a proxy for the Departments of Defense and State, and the de-facto state-run media. Of course Trump does not feel a need to find permanent heads of so many of his Cabinet agencies when he has the expertise, loyalty, and sound judgment of the hosts of Fox and Friends to call upon in a pinch.
And from the look of things, maybe Tucker Carlson is the better choice!
2
You're demonstrating naivete, Maureen, in your belief of The Official Story.
We, the public, including you, don't know what really went on with Trump and his advisers regarding a possible attack against Iran the other day.
Our source of info is the White House itself.
After more than 10,000 lies from Trump as president, you're ready to believe something he and his minions say, that, oh, by the way, makes Trump look reasonable, thoughtful, wise, patient, in control, and presidential? The narrative from the White House about this matter is exactly what a handler would want to the public to hear to make a president look good and boost the public’s opinion of him.
We don't know. Maybe the narrative is true, maybe not—and the details about the when and what are implausible re: the questions of estimated deaths, but given that we don't know what really went on, and given Trump's track record—and that of his aides, skepticism and agnosticism are the reasonable take, not belief in The Official Story.
12
Once again, the arsonist puts out his own fire.
10
Trump knows he isn’t worthy to be commander in chief. It’s why he arranges to be out of the country on Memorial Day and Veterans Day. But I’m not sure how long the armchair hawk bluster can coexist with the inner fraud. He’s going to keep crying wolf as long as he can.
5
Let me get this straight.
Maureen Dowd agrees with the decision made by President Trump about refraining from military response with Iran.
But, he's reached this decision because he's stupid.
Whereas she reached the same conclusion because she's smart.
OK - got it. It must have been painful to write something even remotely positive about President Trump. The way to do it is to criticize every aspect of the man, while lamely praising the results. The Art of the Insult.
4
The only thing that changed Trump's mind was hearing that a war with Iran would hurt his chances of re-election.
When Bush invaded Iraq he and his "team" convinced their base that Saddam was linked to the 9/11 attacks.
What was it Bush said? Fool me once...
6
There was never a strike planned. Only a leak to the media to let Iran know how close they came to getting clobbered.
He has given Iran three signals in 24 hours he wants things to cool off: 1) the tankers were no big deal 2) drone shot was probably a trigger happy rouge, 3) military strike would be disproportionate.
Those are textbook deesclation tactics. Don’t pretend they were all “accidents” Maureen.
4
Please, stop giving Trump credit for doing something right for once. He also:
-- Hired the people who have made a career of promoting war with Iran.
-- Pushed for "ending" Iran in 2018 and again this year.
-- Doesn't care about killing people, especially nonwhites and Muslims that don't do business with him; e.g., the CP5, the immigrant children in U.S. detention, the journalist murdered by the Saudis.
There's only one way to stop war with Iran...tell Trump that Iranian leaders want to build a Trump Tower in Teheran and call it the "Triple T." Trump only cares about money.
6
Between the amount of time Trump is either watching tv or playing golf can we really consider him a President, or is he just really retired with a occasional gig as a consulting president?
5
I’ve been trying to cut down my alcohol consumption these days but the idea that the only thing standing between us and another costly bloody war in the Mideast is Tucker Carlson’s influence on Donald Trump pretty much has me running screaming to the bottle.
Carlson has Trump’s ear because Trump believes that Carlson understands his base voters and more importantly the swing voters he needs to win re-election. He tells Trump that they are tired of these never ending wars. Now Trump also listens to the fossil fuel industry, the Saudis, the Israelis and of course Vladimir Putin all of whom have their own motivations and are pulling him in other directions.
My guess is that Trump will has no qualms about kicking Bolton and his crew to the curb—they were never his guys to begin with but he’ll have more problems saying no to his pals Bibi and Prince Mo both have been jonesing for the US to get into a war with Iran for a long time. They are not going to give up easy.
With Trump’s predilection for reality show drama it’s going to be a rocky ride.
I never thought I’d say this but “Go Tucker!”
And please pass the scotch.
8
How like one another, faux and Fox. But maybe Tucker Carlson will fool us all and speak intelligently, rather than by snark, sarcasm, and mocking laughter, when confronting thoughts outside the Fox wheel house.
So, Tucker Carlson is now a Presidential advisor? Based on his vast experience and expertise in Middle East policy? This administration is an asylum.
9
This blowhard's biggest concern is getting re-elected. All his TV appearances, policy decisions and lies are shaped by that obsession. If he thought war with Iran would spike his poll numbers, he would be glad to show how tough he can be. Such are the dangers of having an unscrupulous narcissist in the White House.
10
@William
Re-election = protection by Republicans
Failure = criminal prosecution
3
Well, for God's sake, if we are going to go down, let us go down like the fools that we are, with Bozo at the helm and the Joker at his side. For all the people we could have elected president, this one is the worst. The only possible worse one would be John Bolton himself.
6
I think this is Trump trying to manufacture the appearance of reasonableness.
Sure, you got the Chicken Hawk John Bolton, very courageous when it comes to sending other men into battle but teeth-chatteringly reluctant when it comes to himself, jumping up and down for a war.
As they say, "When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."
These clowns need to focus on staffing government and complying with the Constitution. Baby steps first. Then, in the unlikely event these idiots prove themselves capable of not destroying the nation, then they can do the more complicated, big boy stuff like starting wars.
This time, we really must insist that they have a plan for what happens after the shooting stops. And sorry, dumping trillions of dollars in a country half way around the world - yeah - turns out that doesn't help Americans at all. Weird I know but I guess you should invest money where you live. Seriously.
I wonder how my great grandchildren will feel about paying for W's war? I wonder if they will feel like it is good use of their tax dollars.
5
With chicken hawks like Dolton and Pompous, who needs reason or logic, when hate is easier.
Between the fake Christianity of pompous, and the quasi draft dodger Dolton (" Though Bolton supported the Vietnam War, he declined to enter combat duty, instead enlisting in the National Guard and attending law school"), we're in for another costly, misguided, M E quagmire, to do the dirty work of the war mongers and butchers in Israel & S Arabia.
We have enough problems both domestically as well as globally to be distracted by the likes of the 3 amigos who collectively cannot apply one sound mind..
4
President Donald Trump doesn't want war with Iran, but if it comes there will be "obliteration like you've never seen before."
Yes even Hillary Clinton declared her readiness to obliterate Iran. But Trump promises to do this "like (sic) you've never seen before."
We know all too well the name of the man who in my lifetime went further along that path than any other human before him, but even he was not armed with nuclear weapons. Trump is.
Does he even understand what he is saying, which is that he is prepared to inflict genocide on a people, 83,000,000 Iranians not a one of whom has ever threatened to harm him or the country he pretends to lead.
Pompeo, Bolton, Trump - ready to commit genocide. And if they do, then my country of birth will in the process have committed suicide.
Is that how our story is about to end?
Tell me.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
5
This is the best column Maureen has ever written in all the years I have read. The chill I got was the mention of Liz Cheney US House ,The female spawn of Dick Cheney VP of W Bush. Then there is Bolten, so like Rumsfelt and that clique. The sad thing is that it is written in the best and most honest paper in the world and the ones who should read it are too afraid or ignorant of it's value. I first read the Sunday paper and bought parachute material to make drapes for practically nothing. 19 56. Thanks a million for free honest press. Constitution of USA which has been voided by TRUMP & Corp.
the sad
The incompetence in this GOP Administration is shuddering! As a faux elite, I say if we want to win decisively in Iran then after the artillery barrage we send in hordes of the western militia and the white supremest cavalry from the southern states and Pennsylvania.
1
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Good job. And I’m pretty sure Trump has no idea what “faux” means, so it’s unlikely he’ll respond precipitously, at least in this instance, if someone on his staff reads this to him.
Yes it was a huge positive, but a pause not a step forward or backward. The underlying problems are still the same, and working strongly against any kind of progress. The crippling sanctions on the one hand and refusal to talk on the other are still there. It is hardly a stable standoff. Maybe the Iranians will recognize, like NK, that Trump mainly wants to appear to be at the center of decision-making, never mind what is actually happening, and engage somehow discreetly. But I am not holding my breath.
What should bother a lot of people is this:
If Trump agreed to the air strike BEFORE, why was he only told about the possible deaths of civilians AFTER he agreed to the strike.
Did his advisers omit that detail? Did they tell him and he didn't take it as important or just didn't hear it?
Either way, Trump may not want a war with Iran. But his unwillingness to know ALL the facts before approving action is very likely going to get not just America but most of the mid-East in a war absolutely no one will win.
1
45 is always about himself. I don't believe that he came to the conclusion to back off from involvement in Iran on his own. In fact, I don't think he gave it much more thought than he does while tieing his tie.
Given a chess match with a blindfolded Iranian he would be clueless in setting up the board correctly.
Iranians are bad actors but they and their diplomacy skills have been around for thousands of years. Lest we forget we caused the mess in Iran back in 1953 when we/CIA created the coup that overthrew the democratically elected Mosaddegh.
10
@Excessive Moderation
Great handle!
1
@clct53 Thanks LOL It keeps my weight where I want it to be.
While the Chinese built their country into a 21st century super power financed by the American consumer we spent almost 6 trillion dollars and 4000 lives on nothing. Zip, nada, nothing to show for all that tax money.
Now Republicans want to do it again? Let's brace ourselves for a new war, another round of tax cuts for the rich, threats of there is not enough money for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education, infrastructure, and another round of American youth sent off to a, I do not know what to call it, an we vil and unnecessary war.
As Trump would say "sad".
Why aren't the Democrats talking about this? How did Biden vote on the Iraq invasion in 2002, and the Patriot Act in 2001. He is not getting my vote, either in the primary or if it happens, in the general election.
Speak up.
7
@Peter So, you would rather have Trump for another term than vote for a candidate, Biden, who could possibly prevail in the election?
5
Am I the only one who finds these drones expensive? I am not an expert but somehow we have managed to increase cost, with automation.
4
Trump believes that the fallout from the Iraq War is what got Obama elected, and Tucker Carlson in a way reminded Trump of that belief. Trump pulled back because he feared it could cost him re-election.
14
@Sparky I tend to agree with that. I also think that if the Democrats do him the favor of nominating a hawk like Biden he’ll have no qualms about wrapping the whole bloody mess around Joe’s neck.
It seems quite likely to me that the American drone in question was spying on Iran and they decided to shoot it down. After all, that's what drones are for. Also, Trump is probably lying when he claims to have inquired about potential casualties from a raid. He had no doubt already been briefed on that point.
18
But wasn't this entire foreign policy gaffe predictable? When all the adults left the room---Mattis, Tillerson, etc.---and the middle schoolers arrived---what we saw this week was inevitable. What really is troubling is at least Bush had some adults around---mostly generals--even then, it was a terrible mess. Trump's military and diplomatic bench is empty---I mean empty. Any ability to open up a diplomatic strategy or carry out a successful military campaign would demand a high level of state department and defense department expertise. I attribute this all to sheer laziness---Trump and his advisors just do not want to work the job...at all. Diplomacy and even military action takes expertise, time, and many hours of planning---Trump is not built for this kind of engagement---neither is Bolton or Pompeo---both see shortcuts in military action, which, they believe will lead to quick regime change.
16
Donald Trump separates families at the border, puts children in cages, and incarcerates immigrants in concentration camps. He defends the Saudi murder of a journalist and incites hatred and violence toward journalists at his rallies. He is the proximate of the sharp escalation in anti-Semitic atrocities that have occurred during his presidency. White supremacists correctly perceive that he is on their side. He dehumanizes Muslims and blacks. His presidency has been unspeakably cruel, selfishly transactional, and void of American virtues.
But we are to believe that he called off the airstrikes because 150 people might die?
36
The answer is yes and I doubt seriously whether you have analyzed his intentions accurately nor honorably. You see, when you have serious TDS, facts don’t matter.
Not so fast. This administration it is staffed by and allied with characters who are so warlike that they make Tucker Carlson look like a peacenik; next time the US-Iran relationship looks like boiling over, it may be Benjamin Netanyahu who whispers in trump's ear.
15:40 EDT, 6/22
7
"Know your enemy" is the basis of all conflict. Whereas, Trump's dictum of "punch him in the nose and then negotiate", which may play well in the world of real estate development, landed him head-to-head with someone willing to play Trump's game with much higher stakes than a blown land deal.
No, we don't know the difference between Sunni and Shi'a, and we focus (thanks to the Saudis and Israelis) on the evils of the Shi'a while ignoring the ongoing Saudi influence of funding a whole lot of Sunni clerics who have the job of stirring the Salifist/Wahhabist agenda worldwide and indirectly funding their offshoot organizations that include Al Qaeda, Taliban, ISIS, et al. Frankly neither side has clean hands. Unfortunately the Saudi's are accomplished manipulators having convinced both Israel and the USA that they, not the Shi'a, are our friends.
Fortunately, Trump's real agenda is to re-instate Obama's "deal" only this time topped by the Trump Logo. Unfortunately, world leaders have actually read Trump's playbook and are using his own tactics against him and he doesn't know what to do and is quite out of his depth. The term: "Useful Idiot" comes to mind. Unfortunately, the RNC has convinced Trump to surround himself with War-Hawks who, despite never having served themselves, are anxious to send Americans into another war for their aggrandizement.
20
@George N. Wells
"Unfortunately, the RNC has convinced Trump to surround himself with War-Hawks who, despite never having served themselves, are anxious to send Americans into another war for their aggrandizement"
Ironically, that was a question on Jeopardy.
Q: What is a pro-war person with no military experience?
A: What is a "chickenhawk"
We wouldn’t be here if he’d not walked away from the Iranian deal- but because he hates Obama- and his mantra is to undo everything Obama did (remember bannons white board list?) - we are where we are now with regards to Iran.
14
Trump may still be vying for that Nobel Peace Prize. My money is on Tucker Carlson.
Oh, Puhleeeze. You write about Trump as though he is competent.
20
His boss Vladimir talked him out of it.
7
In my opinion, the calling off of the airstrike was orchestrated, it did not unfold as Trump told Chuck Todd. How do I know? Trump used the word "proportionate" and that word is above a 4th grade reading level.
24
I've always looked at Trump's election in the same way as the assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand, or the capitulation to Hitler by Chamberlain at Munich. Both those isolated episodes set the gears turning towards world catastrophe. With Trump's election, I see the gears turning towards another world slaughter. The lies, the moral bankruptcy, the alienation of allies, the coddling of dictators, the abdication of leadership, the promotion of hate and greed, the breakup of Europe, the fracturing of NATO......and now the gas has been spilled and trump has a match in his hand.
15
That Tucker Carlson - a man who pushes brazen racism and white nationalist rhetoric on his nightly show - kept us from war says so much about the current state of our insane country. Let us all hope the neocons don't have the last laugh.
12
Bolton and Pompeii are very disturbed men.
It’s difficult to understand that Trump may be more reasonable and understanding than the “chicken-hawks” - but as they say in the country- “There you have it.”
Whew...
5
@Dry Socket
He is ultimately more "reasonable" because he is just not very bright. Also, he does not have any ideology. He only has self-absorption and ego.
1
Just a small point Maureen, you left out Senator Cotton, who thinks "one big strike" going in and "a second big strike" going out, will do the trick--another hungry neocon who doesn't care if another 200,000 or so are killed, and another coupla trillion is spent.
14
A $130 million drone? Maybe we should start buying Chinese. I’ll bet they can make them just as good for less than 39.
8
@RobfromMedford
Yeah, but only because they clone ours after stealing our blueprints.
When Jared and Don Jr and Ivanka join the 82nd Airborne and are dropped into Teheran in the first wave of the invasion and the various Hawks send their kids and grandkids to basic training to join the Army and the Marines....then....we will see flying pigs
Military force, bombers, body bags, cruise missiles are the opiates of the Chicken Hawks who send the children of the poor and minorities to fight these misguided and in some cases like W's criminal wars .... I use criminal because to start a war without a cause....even if congress has some flimsy "war powers" clause is a crime.
Dictators and generals were hanged after war crimes trials at the end of WW2 for exactly the same concocted reasons that Bush Junior and Cheney and Rumsfeld gave in Iraq.
Vietnam Vet
15
RE: “positive reinforcement”
Good thing he doesn’t read.
1
There should be a framed picture of Gen Colin Powell, holding up a test tube during his UN speech, hung in the Oval office. It will remind future Presidents of the risks of starting a war based on cooked-up intelligence.
4
This whole Iran debacle also deflects from the credible, possibly DNA-backed allegation of rape (on the unlaundered coat-dress). Intentionally timed by Trump? No - but he is certainly relieved that the Iran brinksmanship show upstages the rape.
2
Hillary Clinton would never have dealt with Iran with such stupidity and naivete.
So, Ms Dowd, are you sufficiently chastened that you are willing to admit that America would be better off with Clinton than Trump? Have you come to the realization that all of your endless criticisms of Hillary Clinton helped bring us to this point with this "blowhard"?
Can you now admit that you criticized the wrong candidate?
25
Didn't Putin put in a call to Trump?
5
Locked and loaded? More like half-cocked and loaded. Yes, Trump refrains from alcohol and, hopefully, drugs. But narcissism is a drug. And Trump is loaded.
Ms. Dowd is coming closer to depicting the reality of Trump as Commander-in-Chief than all of the straight news reporters, who try so hard to make Trump’s decision-making process fit into a rational process. We, and the world, are in a dangerous place.
10
Chicken Hawks are back in charge!!
2
The planes were in the air? Who ordered it in the first place?
7
A random number generator will hit a winner once in a while.
4
You want to know why he really called off the strike. His boss had already given him instructions, which he probably forgot while watching Faux News. The WaPo reported on Putin Thursday: "The Russian leader also strongly warned the United States against using force on Iran, saying it will trigger a “catastrophe.” Well, Putin was right and Trump had no choice but to back down or incur his wrath. He's not Putin's puppet for nothing. You think he really cares about the lives of 150 Iranians?
23
"But maybe something new could work with the impossible child-man in the White House: positive reinforcement."
It's weird to think that a man who has spent his entire wretched life patting himself on the back would need positive reinforcement, especially since his puffed-up ego has the superpower of inflating crowd sizes as needed.
Best would be negative reinforcement. A swift kick in the back end, straight out of the White House, would be a fitting end to this disgusting mess.
7
Little solace from this week's brinkmanship, I'm afraid. trump has surrounded himself with the most dangerous blockheads imaginable and they will not give up goading him into war.
War is the only answer for Larry and Moe and they know that sooner or later Curly will blow a gasket.
6
He has no idea what he is doing. and of course
he lies a lot.
10
It’s beyond strange that a nationalist isolationist like Trump would stock his cabinet with warhawks like Pompeo and Bolton. But hey, whatever Fox News wants...
5
Trump should go to Iran and try to negotiate a peace agreement.
Then, if the Iranians had any sense, hold Trump hostage for 444 days.
9
Proportionate is too big a word For Trump. I suspect that he was ordered to back down by Putin. The death of 150 people would be of less concern than his coiffure.
17
So much smarter to hash things out at the table than by war...
2
How much longer?
6
Thank heavens for White House Aide Carlson countering the advice of Co-President Hannity!
8
The thanks are apparently due to Tucker Carlson, not President Trump.
2
Dear Mr. President,
Here's an idea: If you want to show how tough you are, why don't
you pull all of our troops out of the Middle East? Bring them home from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, wherever they are over there. Then, send some real diplomats to talk to all of the governments over there to see what kind of a peaceful deal we can make that will be mutually beneficial. Maybe we could sell them food and they could sell us oil. Peaceful stuff like that.
Sincerely,
Earl
5
The trump faux pause. What a smooth operator, a sophisticated and suave man about town. Seriously not a person that would allegedly rape someone in a dressing room of a Manhattan Department Store. How many angels can dance on the head of a pin ? And how many alleged sexual assaults are too many ? Answer me, Pastor Pence. What would Jesus do ??? HE would start with a Whip.
6
@Phyliss Dalmatian
"faux pause" - I like that.
Thank you, Ms. Dowd, for YOUR common sense.
1
To me, this whole incident adds up to a YUGE win for DONALD TRUMP, the best president EVER!!!
[how was that, Maureen? Think he'll buy it?]
1
Yes he did the right thing calling off the attack, "And thank God — and Allah."
His reason had nothing to do with the death of 150 human beings. Remorse is an emotion alien to djt.
This was no 'stumble.' It was an act of self-preservation.
Someone finally penetrated the endless babbling going in his head and he heard the words 'incite a war.' He freaked out because his compromised brain told him he'd loose too many votes from his infamous following in 2020.
5
“I always attack back … except 100x more.”
That reminds us that Trump's calling back the attack wasn't because he wanted to be "proportionate." Being proportionate isn't in his genes.
When it's time for a new Secretary of State, Trump should choose Carlson. Sounds like a crazy idea, yes. But in this Administration, it would provide some sanity.
3
Ecstatic that this Republican President pulled up short, ignoring his advisors, but not so thrilled that it's possibly a warning from Pootie-Poot that such an attack would be 'catastrophic', which was obeyed by His Unhinged Unraveling Unfitness 45*.
'Individual-1' (so named by his own D.O.J.) proves the maxim: 'even a broken clock is correct twice a day.'
1
If I could summarize Maureen's essay (along with most other's having to do with Private Bone Spur, it is this:
Our current President is incompetent and, more often than not, ineffective in his position.
You know what this means? Pink Slip!!!
4
These are lyrics in a song I heard Susan Werner sing many years ago:
.
May I suggest
May I suggest to you
May I suggest this is the best part of your life
May I suggest
This time is blessed for you
This time is blessed and shining almost blinding bright
Just turn your head
And you'll begin to see
The thousand reasons that were just beyond your sight
The reasons why
Why I suggest to you
Why I suggest this is the best part of your life
There is a hope that's been expressed in you
The hope of seven generations, maybe more
And this is the faith
That they invest in you
It's that you'll do one better than was done before
Inside you know
Inside you understand
Inside you know what's yours to finally set right
And I suggest
And I suggest to you
And I suggest this is the best part of your life
These words suggest to me that the best parts of our lives is always spent doing important things.
With November 2020 fast approaching nothing is more important than removing this country from the scourge of Trump.
This -- the time we are presently living in -- must now be spent insuring that the election day turnout of Democrat voters is enormous, even if that be by dragging them out of hospital beds, nursing homes, pool halls, homeless shelters or living in caves and delivering them by ambulances -- if necessary -- to the voting booths.
We all of us are now in the best part of our lives for saving ourselves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW1DDSQnEYo
1
Would someone come up with a vaccine against all things Trump. I'm nauseous from 24/7 Trump talk. It's a mindless loop of toxic trash ......Trump caused the situation with Iran..can he get himself out of the mess without dragging us all in with him......of course not........hopefully only 500 or so more days of Trump...fearful we're not going to make it that long. ..
7
If the Boy Who Cried Wolf was President, how long before the Press would stop covering him?
4
There is a Nigerian proverb:
"When the mouse laughs at the cat, there's a hole nearby.”
Mr. Trump is the mouse.
5
Ha! That’s a great saying.
Vladimir Putin also let the world know that a strike would be catastrophic. Maybe this is who Trump listened to.
3
I'm amazed at how credulous NYT readers are, including Dowd, Kristof, etc.
Why do you believe Trump when he tweets he ordered, then un-ordered the strike on Iran?
He is clearly playing you as part of his reality TV game show.
13
@A
I think you, like lots of people, give him too much credit for strategizing. He is impulsive. To me it is credible that he ordered a strike then called it off. That's how he does everything. Also, he likes the false sense of control that gives him.
Ordering strikes, then calling them off - he is basically thinking, this is a good look for me.
All’s well that ends well as far a yesterday! Ducked another bullet, waiting for the next. Past exhausted. “We gotta get out of this place,” keeps ringing in my head. “There’s a better life for you and me.” Impeached or voted out. There is no soon enough! Thank you for making that crystal for me Ms.
Dowd!
2
BTW - aren’t Liz Cheney’s comments like shouting fire in a crowded theater?
2
You pretty much presented the chaotic state we are living, warmongers on one side (Bolton and Pompeo), seeking a war with Iran, whether the facts align with their fanatic standing or not; and our vulgar ignoramus in-chief, that has no inkling of what's going on, a bully (a coward in disguise) trying to retrieve from a potentially long, protracted war he himself was so critical on 'W' and even Obama. Let's hope Tucker Carlson recommends Trump to take a long overdue vacation (the frequent Mar-a Lago visits don't count), so his administration may finally be able to do people's business.
1
In many ways, Trump has been a better president than GW Bush. The bizarre & disastrous Iraq invasion aside, Bush debased the country into accepting torture, kidnapping, illegal surveillance, and much else. We say that Trump has destroyed respect for truth, and debased the discourse with his petulant insults, but maybe he’s just forcing us to face what was already there. The Republican party & media have been full of moronic blowhards worse than Trump since the Clinton administration. But under Trump, the “MSM” have been forced to notice.
@Martin
I basically agree - one really sad thing that is going on with this presidency is that it's making GWB … look good. How many of us would have ever thought that possible in a million years? Yet Donald Trump has accomplished it.
"And thank God — and Allah — ..."
No.
Why is it so hard for people to comprehend that Allah is God (in Arabic). Not God 'and' Allah ...
This phrasing reinforces the mistaken belief that Christians and Muslims do not share the same god. They do - along with those who practice Judaism.
3
"Breathtaking" is not the word I'd use to describe the reaction from the NeoCon cabal.
1
My God, If Tucker Carlson is now the only thing that stands between us and another major war, we are truly in trouble.
4
The absurdity of the Iraqi war continues to reverberate In the entire Middle East, Europe and the world at large. While it’s true that the Neocons haven’t been dealt with for forcing this country into the Iraqi quagmire, they are pressing their luck.
Excess, like a lit fuse, eventually reaches the point of no return and explodes. Domestically, we have the lying, murderous Sacklers who, through their family company, Purdue Pharma, are responsible for 800K deaths of American citizens from oxytocin OD. Now the Neocons want Americans to die for greed: a land grab in the Middle East, and not for the US.
What then? AIPAC, for one, should be forced to register as a lobbying firm that’s representing the interest of a foreign government. It’s power must be reigned in since it not working in the interest of the nation.
2
Great article but I don’t believe GWB was so afraid of the wimp label. He believed that god put him in the presidency to bring Christianity to the world. He even talked about it to other world leaders. It’s all crazy no matter how you look at it. So many dead and maimed people, so much destruction and for what?
3
Maureen he only did the "right" thing because fox news told him to. Please don't give this deranged man any credit.
5
Who really knows who called it off? Maybe Jared and Bibi. Maybe Vlad. Maybe Jr. and Ivanka have a tower deal in the works for Tehran. But as long as Liz Cheney is free to seek redemption for her war criminal dad, and as long as Bolton and Pompeo are free to utter words, our country is at risk.
5
He takes credit for someone else’s more sane thought. Every day of his administration he has posed the same picture: Create a problem, then take credit for solving it.
If he starts a war, reality will finally set in; no end in sight.
6
The facts that I have learned from history is that, "Wars never turn out the way most of the perpetrators expect, and that those who boast that the other enemy forces will back down after you "bloody their noses" are rarely correct in their costly assumptions."
4
I reading this from up in Canada today after taking a few days off of checking the news, and it just makes my head spin. So this is what it comes to: a mercurial blowhard, aggressive "hawks," egos great and small, "television personalities." What ARE we talking about?
It's a mad, mad, mad world.
8
The smart thing to do is to play the hand you have, not the hand you wish you had, unless you're a first-class bluffer.
We know that Trump cares about his namesake. That's the whole hand.
I find that ignoring TV news and talk shows provides the best objectivity. Dare we think that perhaps Trump did the right thing?
He clearly cares what we think, because he was proud to announce that he saved 150 Iranian lives. I'm proud of him for doing so. We heard, we cared, and we applauded.
The reality of the situation is that it cannot be quiesced without addressing our stupid support for everything Saudi. There's no rational reason for it. As a full-blooded 'mercan, I'm embarrassed by this relationship.
Somebody please explain this to me. Maybe the advisors haven't looked at the oil production stats in the last decade. Maybe they're stuck in Word War 1 mode. What is going on in their heads?
We're acting like a mindless fool!
Maybe some people are so high on the idea that the US controls the world and has some deep responsibility to help the Saudis modernize their thinking. I'll tell you how to modernize their thinking, get the heck away from them!
Stop buying their oil!
The royal family will modernize or be eaten by their subjects.
3
I think it is absurd to suggest that Trump was thinking about anyone but Trump the other night. Trump cares about Trump and I am quite certain he was busy calculating the impact on his re-election bid.
Trump made campaign promises to scrap the Iran treaty and to stay out of stupid wars. But, of course, he is far too stupid to realize that the two are directly related.
Those who believe a war with Iran would be quick and decisive, are simple deluding themselves.
Trump is riding a tiger. He got on the moment he made the bumbling political move to kill the treaty. Now, when the consequences become dire, he doesn't have a clue as to how to get off. Unfortunately, the world is along for Trump's ride.
4
@Bill B
"Trump cares about Trump and I am quite certain he was busy calculating the impact on his re-election bid."
Honestly, I don't even think he's capable of "calculating" stuff in relation to his re-election bid. It is moment by moment with him. He may occasionally have a longer-term thought, but he can't keep it in mind for long, and he is incapable of strategizing around a plan.
He wants one thing: his face on TV. It's important not to forget this basic fact about Donald Trump.
The entire trump administration reminds me of the C and D students who become local cops and gleefully pursue to ticket the kids they hated growing up. For no other reason than they can. Makes them feel so warm and fuzzy. Trump was surely a D student if that. Birds of feather.
4
This is a great one. Awesome column. 'The Iranians are great negotiators with a bad hand and you are a terrible negotiator with a good hand.'
Twain would be proud. Smart, quick, devastating language.
8
Trump is such an ignorant man -- ignorant of history, ignorant of cultures different from his own, ignorant of diplomatic norms, ignorant of our constitution and deeply held values -- that he has no center, no moral core from which to make decisions that will affect the lives of millions. The most critical qualities of an American President are intelligence and good judgment. Trump has neither. He has only an elemental instinct for self-preservation and self-promotion. That is why Cadet Bone Spurs is the worst possible choice the voting public could make in selecting a person to serve in public office. We are in grave danger of paying an enormous price for this blunder.
8
Amen!
Donald Trump gets a D - on this one ; an unlikely scenario , shooting a drone down because the Iranians want to talk . As bad as that grainy video that supposedly shows Iranians removing a mine from the side of a tanker . The dissembling just goes from bad to worst . Another distraction to get the citizens minds off his problems and his refusal to release his taxes , possible impeachment ,holding himself above the rule of law and incompetence .
6
Maybe Trump is just delaying until the debates?
This serial liar of a SCPOTUS is in a pickle here: can you imagine him trying to gain NATO support for whatever military action is recommended by the Pentagon? It isn't 1962 anymore when JFK i NATO nations to let them know about the Soviet missiles in Cuba and his plan. When he phoned General DeGaulle and told him and asked if he wanted aerial photos of the missiles De Gaulle said " No, I have your word." Would ANY NATO leader say that today, and how many us cannot help but think that a war with Iran would appeal to this narcissist whose worst fear right now is losing re-election because there goes his immunity from prosecution. At bottom he does not care about the loss of Iranian or American lives, he cares only about his sorry self.
4
I think a phone call from Putin put a temporary stop to this craziness.Saying that that the thought of150 casualties stopped him is too big to swallow.
5
You probably miss the days of criticising Clintons. How fun they were for your for the last 10-15 years. It sounds like you really are scared that Trump will start a war. Now Clinton might not have been a bad choice right. It would have been better for all of us and the world if she was the President.
6
Draft Liz Cheney!
2
It seems obvious that Iran and China are going to wait out Trump and his one term presidency.
The loss of a $200M piece of equipment is more than just a provocative attack, and Trump blinking again could cost him the election, too.
He owns the position he's in; what a fool.
3
Great Article Maureen
1
'We sweep in with oblivious swagger, with most Americans not knowing the difference between Shiites and Sunnis, assuming we’re going to swiftly kick butt in an asymmetrical cakewalk. And then we end up stalemated and playing into our enemies’ hands, with hundreds of thousands dead and a $5.9 trillion bill for the post-9/11 wars — not to mention that Trumpworld has ended up deeper in the murderous House of Saud’s embrace.'
Trump could build walls across our southern border, the border with the Northern Triangle, between North and South Korea, and separating Hong Kong from China with many trillions left over (not that it makes sense, but speaking in Trumpian terms). But that's only if we'd saved the trillions wasted on Iran, Afghanistan, and Syria. And that's not to mention the wasted opportunity for massively upgraded US infrastructure, universal broadband, a war against opioid addiction, near free college and technical education, and major climate change mitigation.
It's pretty clear, in retrospect, that we would have done much better with beefed up diplomacy backed up by a leaner, but still powerful military, than we did by wasting all our kinetic endeavors on Rambo stylings.
It used to be said, back in the 19th century, that Afghanistan was the graveyard of empires. Now it's pretty clear the Middle East is the graveyard of empire and dreams. Spending US dollars there is like feeding an addiction to endless violence and tribal conflict.
We need an intervention.
4
The “faux caused a pause” is one of your best ones, Maureen.
1
In the end, Trump doesn’t like the optics of him saluting aluminum caskets at Dover Air For Base. He’d like making the duty calls to the parents even less, because beneath the bluster, he’s a coward. With fake bone spurs.
6
As was once said of militaristic Prussia, John Bolton appears to have "been hatched from a cannonball". He's never seen a war he didn't want to wage or a country he didn't want to bomb.
9
Trump just tweeted that he never called the strike back, he just stopped it from going forward.
This must be one of his most idiotic tweets ever, not an easy achievement considering the competition.
3
There is no rhyme or reason to Trump's thinking, there only are ratings.
That's all this Reality-Show-in-Chief cares about, Ms. Dowd.
Notice that he boasted about rounding up illegals a few days ago, said the roundup would begin this coming Sunday?
Then just as suddenly, he announced the roundup was cancelled.
It's to keep all of us -- and I mean all of us -- guessing.
And watching.
Can't wait to see what idiotic diversion Trump comes up with this coming Wednesday and Thursday when the first Democratic debates begin, so he can keep the attention where he believes it should be, on him.
It should be absurd, ridiculous, funny.
But, it's not.
Can we, the American voters, please change the channel?
4
Haven't read every comment but for the ones I've seen: you all just do not get it. Trump called off the strike for one reason and one reason only: he decided doing so was in his own best interest. This had nothing whatever to do with "proportionality," concern for human lives, geo-political strategy, or "doing the right thing." Nothing. You must take his narcissistic personality disorder seriously. Once you do, it's all very simple. It's the answer to every question. I guarantee, if Trump thought killing 150 Iranians would promote his self-interest, he'd do it.
3
Sad that we can't trust our government to keeps its' promises and that we can't believe them when they point the finger and make accusations against another country. I still remember Colin Powell declaring that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. That was a lie. Trump is without a doubt the most prolific liar that has ever sat in the White house and unfortunaelty he is calling the shots, but I will never believe him about anything.
2
This entire column is based on the unproven assumption that Trump backed off because he was the adult in the room. We already know that Trump only acts in ways that are personally beneficial, so unless there was something in it for him by calling off strikes that could kill 150 people, there’s no chance he would have done it solely for humanitarian reasons. At the time of this writing, it was already publicly well known that he had been told much in advance about the possible numbers involved in regard to loss of life. Ms. Dowd’s premise is completely flawed, based as it in on information provided by our lying president.
2
First they plotted the takeover of Venezuela, and the media all took in the hyperbole, the bluster, and chattered. Now that has failed, and their guy exposed as corrupt ... so they move on to Iran. And they play with the situation there ... inflicting sanctions, demanding everyone else in the world stay out. The US is the school yard bully of the world. One day it will go too far down this rabbit hole, and have to fight a coalition on its own territory.
Whatever caused the president to call off this catastrophe at the brink of war (save some trillions for the Wall?, more theatrics to be announced on the Fourth of July?), I'm just grateful it happened. And as for Bolton and Pompeo, the Dick Cheneys of the day, they'll be back at their machinations after the day off tomorrow. What a way to "run" our foreign policy.
1
I'm not usually impressed by Dowd's analysis but this time she's not only spot-on, but inciteful as well.
"The Iranians are great negotiators with a bad hand and you are a terrible negotiator with a good hand."
Both halves of this are totally true. They are also paranoid (why not? Most of their neighbors are hostile), good at "punching up", and know they have most of the Western world on their side as we watch Pompeo and Bolton do everything they can to foment this war. As James Holden (Steve Strait) says in "The Expanse",
"No plan survives first contact with the enemy."
At least Tucker Carlson has finally shown why he was put on this planet, if what we're told is true, and is not a total waste of an expensive suit, and that was to prevent a war.
I rarely say this, but well done, Ms. Dowd, well done!
2
I wish I was shocked the same “warmonger caucus” that was wrong and lied about Iraq, and botched the post-war strategy on both Iraq and Afghanistan, is in a position of influence here. Pompeo and Bolton? Liz (channeling Dick) Cheney? The rest of old Bush crowd cheerleading for war on Fox News?
The Hard Right and Trump’s southern base have a lot in common—often wrong, never in doubt. After Trump is maneuvered into a war in the Middle East by people who should have no credibility on issues of war and peace, maybe he can refocus on domestic affairs by naming Jefferson Davis as the Secretary of Labor and Robert E. Lee to fill the vacant Secretary of Defense job.
1
The Republicans have a tendency to create problems which benefit them and then tailor solutions which also benefit them and their donor class. Iraq is a big example. Trump will create a crisis like recently with Iran and the immigrants then cancel what he's set in motion. Never mind! But nobody benefits from what he does except himself in some pathological, narcissistic way. He gets praise for stopping what he should never have started! He is emotionally abusing us. Hopefully it won't be physical abuse with a war. He reminds me of an abusive husband who sends flowers the day after.
I reading this from up in Canada today after taking a few days off of checking the news, and it just makes my head spin. So this is what it comes to: a mercurial blowhard, aggressive "hawks," egos great and small, "television personalities." What ARE we talking about? Hello???
It's a mad, mad, mad world.
1
As the cliche says, "Even a broken clock is right twice a day."
My favorite Bolton quote:
"I confess I had no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy," Bolton wrote of his decision [not to serve in combat] in the [Yale] 25th reunion book. "I considered the war in Vietnam already lost."
Yet, like most Republican chicken-hawks he has no problem with other people's children dying in the sand of the Middle East or a rice paddy.
5
All said and done trump is dangerous to this Nation and to this World , there must be someone out there to beat this lying corrupt old man.
His cronies are as bad has him always afraid to say no to be yelled at together with trump`s own corrupt family.
But who would send this man packing ? Although this very large man would refuse to leave.
I dream of the ending to be like TV`s Seinfeld show.
1
Trump is like the proverbial blind man describing an elephant except, Bolton and Pompeo in the ivory business and all they want is a dead elephant so the blind man is led to believe all that he touches on the elephant is dangerous, he has no idea what the elephant is.
Who’s more dangerous Trump or the people who support him. The Trump supporter. It’s time to blow right by them. Vote.
2
Lin Cheney deserves more respect from Maureen Dowd, who has repeatedly railed at the general lot of women in America.
Congressperson Cheney has been elected in her own right by the majority of voting citizens of Wyoming. This is an at-large seat. In terms of population, Lize Cheney represents the third-largest congressional district in the nation. Please, show some respect for Ms. Cheney as a woman with power and substance in her own right. She is more than the daughter of a guy who is routinely maligned by Hollywood and the Times. Ms. Cheney has power in her own right. If you want to attack her positions, please do so on the merits, not on her gender and parentage.
I suppose someone needed to say that Trump did something right.
Glad it was you, not me.
What scares me most about this situation is that Tucker Carlson is alleged to have been the one to change Trump's mind about attacking. I attended a talk Carlson gave preceding the 2008 election, in which he made a slew of predictions about the election. Every one of his predictions was not just wrong, but wrong-headed and borderline stupid. While I'm glad that things worked out for the best in this particular situation so far, it gives me no comfort that such a shallow, faux intellectual is being listened to at all. And Bolton should be in jail, not advising anyone about anything.
2
The stumblebum is worried about 150 casualties (and Muslims no less) when his whole career was destroying the many lives of his casino workers by declaring bankruptcy, stiffing his many contractors with lawsuits, denying affordable housing to blacks, giving the finger to so many government workers by callously shutting down the government, ruining the lives of asylum seekers and ripping children from their families?
Maureen, with all due respect, what's wrong with you? The man is irredeemable, a blot on humanity. He should get no credit for anything since he is incapable of performing a moral act.
He is like Chaney, the other horror. Remember, "Things happen."? 150 casualties? Things happen.
This is how Trump thiinks and feels.
Look for another reason for his change of "heart."
3
Putin probably called up the Donald and suggested he call off the strike. He might even have suggested using preventing loss of life as the reason.
Why would Putin do that?
1. Putin and Russia have worked with Iran at least since Lenin's day. They both border the Caspian sea and are long-time trading partners (and co-conspiritors in the caviar market). Putin does not need a failed state to the south nor a compliant ally to the US who would cheerfully allow air bases and missles for projecting US power. A nuclear Iran would also likely to be opposed by Russia for obvious strategic reasons.
2. Putin owns Trump, and proably enjoys tugging on the leash. All he needs to do is suggest the Trump Moscow deal is gone forever, or that he is offering up the Pee tapes, or that he will reveal the level of cooperation during the last election--or just suggest that if Trump goes ahead with this, he is on his own (and Trump appears to be a needed supplicant seeking Putin's approval).
While Trump does appear to follow advice from Fox--more often Fox just enables Trump. The Tucker Carlson story is lie #2, after the disbelief associated with the "no casualties" from lie #1 on why Trump backed off on the strike.
1
Although fallen out of favor because of ridiculous racial interpretations the cunning tales of Br'er Fox and Br'er Rabbit, which originated in Africa, fits the arrogance of Trump and the US perfectly.... "Br'er Fox constructs a doll out of a lump of tar and dresses it with some clothes. When Br'er Rabbit comes along, he addresses the baby amiably, but receives no response. Br'er Rabbit becomes offended by what he perceives as the baby's lack of manners, punches it and, in doing so, becomes stuck. The more Br'er Rabbit punches and kicks the baby out of rage, the worse he gets stuck."
It all comes down to this: He is a chaos machine and sometimes the chaos works for him and much of the time the chaos works against America and the world. This time, while trying to look heroic by calling off his own ordered strike and batting Bolton and Pompeo and Hannity down (and listening to Tucker Carlson) it worked for America and the Middle East. We may not be so lucky next time. Will he look heroic and increase his base? He certainly hopes so. Re-election is always looming - and prison if he loses or fails to rig it adequately.
He is a pathological liar. No one can trust a liar. I don't know why anyone even tries. It's a useless endeavor. But his enablers and Nancy keep him energized and never give him consequences and accountability for those lies.
I pray we make it to 2020 and we kick him to the curb, with the rest of the refuse.
Oh, and I refuse to say, "How wonderful, Mr. President, for calling off the strike that should never have been ordered. When did you ask that question about casualties, Mr. President? It should have been your first question and you said it was your last. I refuse to say, "How wonderful for being so stupid".
He's a stupid liar and I want him gone before he destroys us all.
3
"Donald Trump did something right." Huh? He ordered a strike, and then cancelled it, so now he gets credit for cancelling what he ordered? OOOOOKKKKK.
2
There’s only one reason why Trump backed off the military strike... it’s because his true puppeteer (PUTIN) called him and told him to knock it off as Iran is Russia’s ally.
CHECK THE PHONE RECORDS!
3
Only at the last minute did he realize that 150 people would die? Really?
1
Did something right? Hardly. He cancelled his own order to attack, after a year of ratcheting up tensions, and after cancelling the Iran agreement when he had no plan or strategy to replace it. You're setting the bar mighty low, Maureen.
2
Trump has caused this by backing the Irani into a corner. He backed out of the nuclear deal that they were complying with. then he ratched up the sanctions causing them to look for a weapon to strike back. Voila drone! Maybe some other people's tankers. So now they will have to think about more retaliation while they amp up their nuclear ambitions. Great move Trumpy.
First, it's hard to believe Trump has ever used, much less understood, the word "proportionality" before it was somehow planted in his mouth. Ugh. Second, he lies about everything, small and smaller. This is not a strategy, it's just who he is. How are we to believe he understands anything, including the filth he spews at his rallies? These are very scary times. I do not like waking up in the morning fearing we're stumbling into military action due to this man's whims.
1
"He [Tucker Carlson] compared the warped intelligence Bush officials used to justify the 2003 Iraq invasion with the “misplaced certainty” exhibited by Pompeo over iffy evidence that Iran attacked a pair of oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman."
I'm not a fan of DT & his cabal, but the NY Times published video, showing boats identical to those Iran's military uses, removing mines from a previously damaged tanker, indicates with about 99% certainy that Iran was in fact behind the tanker attacks.
Trump backed down because Putin told him to. Trump owes Russian oligarchs tens or hundreds of millions dollars - Don Jr told us so on camera
1
As far as the Trump administration’s policy towards Iran is concerned it’s a case of the braggadocious leading the belligerent.
1
What a feeble excuse Trump gave about pulling back his strike. Actually, what stopped Trump from striking Iran now is that it isn't close enough to November 2020. Believe me, this is when we will see a first strike by the U.S., and I doubt it will be "proportionate".
And if the past three years have taught us anything, he doesn't care how badly he hurts the country. Any aggression by the U.S. will be met with unanimous international condemnation (except for Israel, perhaps), further eroding our nation's standing. We will be very much alone.
And Trump has a good reason to use Iran as a run-up to 2020. He desperately wants to stay out of prison, and a war would propel him into a second term. Or, even better for him, he'll use the wholly unprovoked war he starts to claim that a "national emergency" requires that he cancel the election.
Either way, Trump doesn't care that the only result of such a war will be thousands of deaths of our young service men and women, tens of thousands of deaths of Iranian citizens, and a complete demolition of whatever little respect and international standing the U.S. still has.
Trump's voters are in lockstep with him, because any time he kills brown skinned people while consolidating absolute power is a win for them. But from Trump's reign onward, our nation will be known as a willfully ignorant, racist backwater of a country that was once a beacon for human rights and a respected world leader. Thanks to Trump voters, those days are over.
2
Trump ignored the neocons and Bolton (a walrus looking faux tough guy) and spared us a senseless war. Sean Hannity should not be anyone’s advisor, especially the President of the US.
Even harder to admit that Trump did something right is to admit that Tucker Carlson gave him good advice.
Some Latin coming up. Please bear with me:
There's an ode of Horace. Talking about Queen Cleopatra.
She was (he tells us) fortuna dulci ebria. "Drunk with her own lofty position."
She thought she could tackle the Roman Empire. And win! Fool that she was!
She lost. She got an object lesson in Reality 101. She took her own life.
Well, Ms. Dowd, that was a long time ago.
But gosh! Mr. John Bolton reminds me of HER. Mr. Bolton and people like him.
These guys are DRUNK on the (admittedly vast) military power of the United States. "We can do ANYTHING, " they crow. "The world lies at our feet. We're OMNIPOTENT."
I remember (way back when) Secretary of State Dean Rusk--a wiser man than these warmongers clustering round Mr. Trump like bees around a flower--
--announcing U.S. retaliatory moves after the "Gulf of Tonkin" incident.
"They (the North Vietnamese) got a sting," he declared. "If they choose to up the ante, they'll get ANOTHER sting."
Sounds like Dr. Pavlov discussing a dog.
That thinking led us into the Vietnam war.
And we lost. Remember those last helicopters lifting off in Saigon? I do. Vividly.
I guess we weren't as strong as all that. Were we, Mr. Rusk?
Were we, Mr. Bolton?
Were we, Mr. Pompeo?
Don't let's be like that foolhardy king in Christ's parable. Vaingloriously plunging into a war--
--we'll never get ourselves OUT of.
Like the war in Iraq.
Remember?
I do.
Vividly.
Why does Maureen credit Trump's version of events with being the truth? The way it went down according to him seems like it was written by a TV drama hack. And it earned him her praise: "Donald Trump did something right." Many question his intelligence because he exhibits a limited vocabulary and seems to have trouble decoding teleprompters effectively. He is clearly smarter than the approximately 45% of the electorate who voted for him and continue to support him. And it seems that he is smarter than a similar amount of Opinion Columnists.
So maybe Trump isn't so stupid after all. A little crazy, but not stupid.
It says about the current state of mind of the POTUS that a solitary wise act by him in nearly two and a half years since taking office, and that should have been a routine decision warrants an article by a NYT columnist.
We have set the expectation bar really low.
This is how low our governance has fallen: war or not? a debate between Brian Kilmeade and Tucker Carlson.
That noise you hear is every founder of the United States spinning wildly in his grave.
Congrats to all those who voted for Trump that our foreign policy is now made by Hannity and Carlson form the Fox fake news. This is the funniest (and saddest) thing that ever happened to my country.
2
"I've been at the treacherous juncture....." Talk about a bloviated ego. Should that not be, "We've been at...."?
Bomb. Not bomb. If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.
Did he balk because of the thought that his decision would bring the death of 150 people, and many more in the aftermath? Or because he couldn't face the disapproval of Tucker Carlson?
Thank you Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and George W. Bush for the $5.9 trillion dollar Iraq/Afghanistan bill and related human carnage. Liz Cheney is trying to make you proud by saber rattling for yet another deadly conflict that neither she nor her family members will be touched by.
Sure miss Mattis in a time like this.
IT can't even begin to understand the hornet's nest he would open up with war with Iran. Good heavens.I'm sure we remember the last one, um still ongoing war . IT just has to go. although i've held off the impeachment wagon I just kicked the tires and they seem to be working
He's still not right as often as a broken clock.
"Cheney...daughter Liz...said Trump’s inaction “could in fact be a very serious mistake.” ... comparing Trump to Barack Obama."
That's scary too. Trump is essentially the anti-Obama--his only policy is undoing Obama's.
So now Cheneys goad Trump into war with Iran, just because Obama didn't.
"At least, unlike W. — another underinformed president — Trump is not a captive of the neocons."
Careful Ms D--you are whitewashing W Bush: ignorance is a defense. Not for speeding tickets, but for murder and mass murder (!!). Thus its bliss. You let the whole Bush family off too easy.
We should see their post war tax returns as well as Cheney's. Trump's--too but for different reasons.
2
Same unending pattern: invent a crisis, thump chest, rouse unwitting base, backtrack, declare a win, repeat
2
Do you think a man who can't bring himself to condemn the brutal murder of Jamal Kashoggi, treats women as his playthings, and wrongly calls for the death penalty of the so-called "Central Park Five", mistreats the people around him, cheats on his wives, among other things, really cares about the possible death toll from a military strike on Iran? Tucker Carlson told him it could cost him reelection. So now he's stuck. Strategic genius.
It’s a sad day when people believe the version of events put forward by IRGC of Iran. This is the direct result of the lack of credibility of the Trump Administration. When you lie all the time people don’t believe you when you might actually telling the truth. Also the Bush era WMD fiasco is still fresh in the minds of people.
You don’t want to get mired in a war that could spill over to Saudi Arabia and Israel, sparking conflagrations from Afghanistan to Lebanon and beyond.
Not to mention annoy Putin, aka the puppet master, who surely had more to do with Trump's eleventh hour change of heart than Tucker Carlson.
While we are compiling our Axis of (NeoCon) Evil -- Bolton, Pompeo et al. -- please do not forget Sen. Tom Cotton. He is the bright young face of perpetual war.
But wait. We're still on the brink, according to the headline on the front page of the print edition of this newspaper today. The "standoff escalates", it says. How can we readers even care about world events if our revered source of news and its columnists can't get stories straight?
Promo says there will be war. It will not be pretty. Obama will be blamed. The press will distort and jeopardize national security. Democrats and Hillary will be fall guys.
Donald trump is the only person able to rectify and reinstate American greatness after bloody conflict. We are beyond lucky to have his wisdom and fearlessness.
And now a word from our sponsors. More after the break. Can I get a rewrite of the script?
Cue theme song “Isn’t it a pity? Is t it a shame?”
1
@Ama Nesciri George Harrison's lyrics:
"Isn't it a pity
Isn't it a shame
How we break each other's hearts
And cause each other pain
How we take each other's love
Without thinking anymore
Forgetting to give back
Now, isn't it a pity"
If the armchair Generals in Washington want a war so badly let them don the uniform and lead the infantry. They don't get to set back and let our men die and taxpayers pay for their ego trip. And if Israel wants to go to war they will need to do it without hiding behind America's back.
"Donald Trump did something right".
Don't feel too bad about writing that Ms. Dowd. This time next week he'll be on track, with some other nightmarish decision that will have the world thinking, what in God's name is that lunatic up to?
Praising Trump as a peace-maker? No, a peace-maker would never have hired a crazy-hawk like Bolton. DJT might not know much but he knew Bolton was a crazy-hawk itching for a war. The world knows that about Bolton. There's more to this story than we are being told and much of it is likely about DJT re-election campaigning.
1
You've really misread this. The bluff was they would shoot down the P-8. The Iranians operated the weapon well, and the drone as it veered off the P-8 and entered disputed FIR space. A set up all along.
Trump declined this stupid, obvious, and well known (to all the security agencies in the US and elsewhere) faint because he knew his base would find out.
Hero? Good decision? No. "Show me as a trustable leader".
Charades from start to finish.
No worries. They'll cook up another trap.
1
Starting another war in the Middle East would be sheer insanity.
I do not believe a single word Trump has said regarding this situation. There is way more to the story. Since when has he ever cared about being "proportionate"? Since when has he ever cared about the lives of people in other countries, or in the US, for that matter? He cares about one thing only: Trump. Nope, not buying his story.
1
As odd as it might sound to say at this point in the demise of our democracy under the Trumpian reign, I don't think Donald Trump is evil. I don't think he has an instinct to kill and maim people and call it a fun day. I have never heard that he gets his jollies from hunting endangered animals, for instance. For Trump that only that matters is his image and his ego, but those do not necessarily mean he has a yearning to blow up countries. At least, that's what I keep telling myself so I can get to sleep at night.
481
@Bob G.
Agree. Add to that, that he’s paying more attention to the polls than he is to Iran, and he’s going bonkers seeing Biden in particular beating him with talk of kindler-gentler. And of course there’s always Mitch: The President doesn’t realize that he can’t do anything unless McConnell sanctions it. (Off-topic: McConnell has learned not to underestimate Pelosi.)
45
@Bob G.: His kids hunt trophy animals. Maybe it's part of the feelings of abandonment and when he left Ivana?
60
@Bob G.
I agree. He is not a sociopath. He is a massive narcissist, but a sociopath - and plenty have called him that - is someone who personally enjoys seeing others in pain, or at least, does not mind it if it furthers his interests. Trump does not seem to enjoy deliberately, coldly causing pain. He is simply beholden to his own insatiable inner thirst for attention, praise, and ego stroking. He is a puppet of Vladimir Putin, even if he doesn't really even know it (or probably he knows it, but doesn't really exactly know how he found himself in this position.)
Trump is very dangerous, not because of his own personal instincts to cause harm but because he is easily USED by others with evil intentions.
I'm quite willing to take him at his word when he says the idea that 150 people would die troubled him, so he called off the strike.
It doesn't make his presidency any less of a horror show on wheels, though.
109
Over the past few years I have read more than several articles of how the secular Iranians have risen in their power, pressuring their government to engage more with the rational members of the international community. The young people in Iran are realizing that they may have more in common with their counterparts in Europe and the U.S. than they do with the ayatollahs. So, isn't the Republicans war mongering playing right into the hands of those in Iran ? As their power diminishes are these Ayatollahs grateful for active foreign enemies like Saudi Arabia and the Republicans in the U.S. It was like a cool breeze in August when John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart sat down together and created an agreement, an agreement that was a lot more than a curb on nuclear armament, an agreement that gave force to the idea that international cooperation was possible despite historical animosities.
On a personal note, I can recall too many instances when bad things happened to me after I chose rash actions in knee-jerk fashion. I admire Trump for restraining an ill-thought-out reaction to the drone incident. Is the thing in the White House capable of presidential behavior ? Wow !
Also, can John Bolton be incarcerated because of his war mongering behavior ? If terrorist speech and postings are considered criminal acts, why not war mongering ?
2
The notion that Trump had a moment of moral clarity is specious. Of course, as the saying goes, a broken clock is right twice a day. But it is frightening and hardly comforting that there is now an appearance that he's making decisions about war and military attacks on the fly.
3
It amazes me that the media is generally accepting Trump's account of how all of this went down. Why so gullible all of a sudden? For all we know, the Joint Chiefs of Staff told him they can't support him on this and forced him to back down. I find it very hard to believe Trump's claim that he stopped it because he felt it wasn't a "proportionate" response. When was a Trump response ever proportionate?
2045
@bruce Good point. No one can believe a word the man says.
178
@bruce, The problem with your argument is that War is the stock in trade the Joint Chiefs live by. Bosnia, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.....
they did not pass up the opportunity to engage in these conflicts regardless of the futility. Russia left Afghanistan after coming to the conclusion that victory was impossible yet, the American War Machine still went ahead and engaged. What is naive is to assume Trump has not learned the definition of sacrifice after seeing how military action in these regions amount to worthless death of American Troops.
26
@bruce
When did he learn the word "proportionate"?
106
So comforting to know that the likes of Bolton, Hannity and Carlson are closest to the ear of this unstable, impetuous, willfully underinformed president when he's playing with the hair trigger of a potential Middle East conflagration. And let's not forget the peace of mind provided by having Javanka right up there with them at the "senior adviser" level.
The combination of agenda-driven ideologues and rank amateurs providing advice to a commander in chief in a time of crisis, whether genuine or artificially inflated, creates needless risk not only for our military, but, as always, for countless innocent civilians. And with a commander in chief as impulsive as Donald Trump, that risk is magnified at least a hundredfold.
In any discussion about the use of force, one of the first questions, if not the very first, should be the likely number of fatalities and the extent of collateral damage. But in this case, it was the last, and at the last minute, no less, if the Trump cliffhanger version of events is to be believed.
With credibility as low as Donald Trump's, it's impossible to be sure what to believe, although the fact that he has even raised the possibility of becoming "president for life" is bone-chilling.
944
@Dotconnector Well said.
24
@Dotconnector
There's one tiny glimpse of zombie awakening talking about Carlson, but again state propaganda TV keeps the business of brainwashing alive and well...very much following Russian playbook, add to this autocratic composition of Senate with McConnell's at the helm and here we are.
It was a great piece in NYTimes couple of days ago...
What America Doesn’t Get About Dictatorships
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/20/opinion/venezuelas-dictatorship-maduro.html
Highly recommend reading it.
24
@Dotconnector,
let’s hope it’s a very short one.very short.
11
I believe I read elsewhere that Putin issued a warning against an attack on Iran. I suspect that warning may have been made privately to Trump as well.
12
@James. Also read that Putin discouraged Don from this insane act.
Whatever the reason or reasons, yes, it was good (and moral) that Trump has so far supposedly changed his mind and has not given Bolton and others their wrapped-in-carnage present.
However, one might also suspect that the unusually-humane decision by President Trump was a pre-planned and staged event aimed at the 2020 campaign to show the compassion and humanity of Donald J. Trump, tough guy with a prostitute's heart of gold.
Doug Giebel, Big Sandy, Montana
819
@Doug Giebel
Pre-planned or what I gave trump one point .
He was not sucked in with the other warmongers in his cabinet, while W did.
30
@Doug Giebel
Oscar Levant said that if you, "Strip away the phony tinsel of Hollywood, you'll find the real tinsel underneath." Sadly,, reality TV star Trump and his administration just don't have the strength of character of 1950's Hollywood.
60
@Doug Giebel I certainly agree that Trump knew about the possible casualties way before the melodramatic ten minute, and I definitely agree that it was a rally rousing moment for reelection, but I don't believe for a minute that he is capable of ever staging a compassionate moment under any circumstances: remember the note he clutched in his hands that was supposed to remind him to be empathetic? And, as for the gold hearted prostitute analogy: don't insult the prostitute.
On another note: Have you all heard about the Republicans out here in the Oregon Northwest? They didn't want to vote on a cap and trade bill so they left the state. Governor Brown had to call up the police. They insist that by not voting they were doing their job. Trumpian/Orwellian politics at its finest.
30
None of these guys has a plan beyond the initial hit, just as Bush, Chaney, Rumsfeld etc., had no plan B. The latter assumed a quick trip to Baghdad, the fall of Sadaam, then joyous Iraqis welcoming us like heroes, forming up a Western-friendly government, and settling into peaceful democracy. Bush et al invaded without really understanding the culture, the alliances, and loyalties which undergird the society (both Iraq & Afghanistan).
Bolton and Pompeo seem to assume that some quick hits will knock Iran out, bring its government crumbling down, and initiate "regime change." As has happened so very often before, they delude themselves into thinking that regime change will naturally lead to a grateful people forming up a Western-friendly government and working to establish a stable democracy. Over and over, advocates of overthrowing foreign governments, i.e., bringing about regime change, live in this delusion. Over and over they are wrong often with terrible results for the people of that nation - and with another mess we have created and cannot clean up. Seriously, do we really need another un-finishable war in the Middle East? Do we really need another country descended into chaos, violence, and instability?
1491
@Anne-Marie Hislop:
yes, but BLACKWATER and all that and a lot of profit to be made....
THAT is the bottom line for most of these people.
115
Any "regime change" must start with the USA itself.
153
@Anne-Marie Hislop
I quite agree, with everything you wrote here. We definitely do not need another country descended into chaos, unfocussed violence and instability. And Europe needs 10s of millions of new refugees, about as much as it needs a hole in the head :-(
65
My guess is that we still have not got the whole truth about Trump's decision, considering the fact that he is addicted to lying. Regardless, the right decision was made, and Tucker Carlson, someone I never thought had a good idea, can take some credit for Trump making the right decision.
If Trump really wants to avoid another devastating conflict in the Middle East, he can start by firing Bolton and Pompeo, and then quit calling Lindsey Graham for advice.
2161
@Robert Stewart
I honestly don't think he's "addicted to lying" per se, when it comes to foreign policy. He is simply less interested in foreign policy because it is hard to make it all about him, all the time.
Perversely, he may be less inclined to get us into a war than some believe. Yes, he is super impulsive, uninterested or incapable of learning details of foreign policy, but on the other hand, he wants all the attention on HIM at all times and a war would distract the public from paying attention him exclusively. Strange as it sounds, a president with this big an ego may have some hesitation to turn the country's eyes overseas. He would rather pick petty fights with individuals at home - it keeps people hanging on his every word where wars and things divert attention to the Middle East.
Just think what the TV screens would show, if we were at war in Iran. That's how you figure out what Donald Trump is going to do next. How often will his own face fill the screen.
66
@Robert Stewart
This is Tucker Carlson’s play to replace Mike Pence as VP.
It’s just as believable as any of this scary tale…
39
@Robert Stewart
Regarding Tucker Carlson, remember, even the blind squirrel occasionally finds a nut.
81
Thank goodness the Bolton Brigade was stopped in its tracks before they could lead us into First a skirmish and then into an all out war. Trump was so quick to pull out of the Iran Nuclear deal and denounced it as the worst deal ever-I have yet to hear what his comprehensive plan is.We can only speculate about who has Trump’s ear-probably not his advisors.I suspect he does not want to stand before his adoring MAGA crowds and talk about a war in the Middle East-this would not enhance his chances for re-election.
6
Amen. It's easy to go play cowboys and Indians in another backyard sending kids not your own far away. You'll read about the horrors of combat but those battles thankfully will not have taken place on your lawn or even on your next door neighbor's. Cheney and Rumsfeld then, Bolton and Pompeo now, if given the green light to flex muscle - not their own - and line the pockets of the military industrial complex. Nearly 5 trillion has been spent without a public eyebrow raised. And yet, when the issue of universal health care is placed on the table, the first question posed is how are we to pay for it.
14
"We sweep in with oblivious swagger...."
Extremely well put.
6
Myself and millions of others were anti-draft and anti-war back during Vietnam. Trump, Bolton, Bush and Cheney were both pro war and draft dodgers at the same time and still are today. They see themselves as too important to fight but the rest of the people are just cannon fodder to these chicken hawks.
35
@Richard Tandlich great point however W was not a draft dodger. He didn't have to be.....Daddy made sure he'd get assigned to the "Champagne Unit" of the Texas Air National Guard in order to assure a safe stateside experience. Privilege.
1
United State Steel (USS) is closing down three blast furnaces, two domestic and one foreign. This is due to the agricultural and car producing sector. This is a fact, tariff man is in way over his head. And the Senate stands by so the minority of Americans push their judges through, Thanks Mitch. I'll never go to Kentucky again.
11
He changed his mind, because he’s all hot air and empty posturIng and, when actual planes with missiles took off, he realized that he was actually going to start a war - a real, honest to goodness war, with guns, bombs, death, armies - and got cold feet. Trump lives in fantasy; reality penetrated for a minute or two and scared him straight. He didn’t want to go there.
We were lucky. This time, Trump’s narcissism, and the existential terror that underlies that narcissism, worked to our benefit. That may not happen again.
11
Why should this "President" disregard the wisdom of past GOP leaders? I happen to be the same age as this smarmy pile and have seen ( how many?) wars and then had to watch the damage it did to our troops, our economy and our infrastructure. No reason why for any of them it turns out and nothing but stonewalling and dirt in the air about what it cost and what it gained. Oh, by the way nothing.
5
Why worry about the impact of a war on Israel and Saudi Arabia? Bibi and MBS are the two most ardent proponents of our sinking deeper into their neighborhood quagmire! The current drumbeating reminds me of nothing so much as the infamous video of John McCain singing "Bomb Bomb Iran" at a staff Christmas party. Beltway experts have not learned the lessons of Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia etc etc.
7
Agree. At least this time he did the right thing. How refreshing to hear a President say he won't go into war because people may die. Get the Pompeo-Pence-Graham-and NeoCons from the past out of Trump's orbit. Crying Wolfowitz and the Cheneys.
Yay. Tucker Carlson. Please don't let the last guy Trump talks to be John Bolton.
4
It's like when you wait in terror for your abuser to explode in a violent rage and when they don't you're so overcome with relief that you react with gratitude and appeasement. The problem is that the abuser will certainly explode in a violent rage later on and knows full well how to exploit your terror to their advantage. The only solution is to get that abuser out of your life completely. Which is what we must do at the ballot box in November 2020.
16
So he's now "Trump the Merciful"? I suspect this has MUCH MORE to with possible negative publicity than any well thought out reasoning. At least he's finally gotten it through his less than stabile genius brain that another pointless war means one thing and one thing only...the end of his presidency. Nothing more, nothing less.
10
Which will destroy us first, Trump or Climate Damage? My money is on Trump.
6
@billwa. Trump and his Republican ENABLERS are destroying our country right out in public view.
Trump lies all the time about everything. And by extension everyone around him lies all the time about everything. So what is really true about Trump’s account of events. We don’t know. The only thing we know is that trump lies all the time. This should scare us all - even more so because the entire Republican Party is Trump.
6
This bomb Iran thing is much more a wag the dog moment Trump gave to the press to get them to quit talking about the barrage of Democrat contenders who could beat him today. And, the media never fails to like a new bone to chew.
Sadly, and disconcertingly, we may see a lot of this before November 2020. Perhaps Hillary could come out and spar with him on Twitter. That maybe enough to appease Trump and the press and keep us out of a senseless war.
3
Donald Trump only ever calculates in terms of his own self interest. Cares nothing for any of the rest of this.
3
"Donald Trump did something right."
Maybe the credit should go to Tucker Carlson as he accurately pointed out that "“The very people — in some cases, literally the same people who lured us into the Iraq quagmire 16 years ago — are demanding a new war, this one with Iran.”
Of course, it was Trump who brought the insufferable Bolton back. Perhaps the situation wouldn't have been this critical without Bolton stirring up trouble.
3
The horror of it all:
1) That Trump primarily only listens to “his gut” when it comes to critical decisions.
2) That Tucker Carlson had more play with the President than most people. Need I remind everyone that Carlson has no security clearance, has no experience, is an entertainer, and hasn’t been vetted by Congress. Thankfully, he had the more rational things to say, over Pompeo and Bolton (who never saw a war he didn’t love sending other people’s kids to die in).
3) That ALL of this is another Trump created crisis! The Iranian nuclear treaty: the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was signed by the EU, the UK, Germany, France, China, Russia, and the US. It was a masterpiece of modern diplomacy - and it worked. Iran did not violate the treaty. The only nation to do so was the US - when Trump just decided he would rather accuse Iran, break, the treaty, impose more sanctions... and try to maneuver Iran into a war! This violates so many international norms, it’s hard to consider them all. It makes the US a rogue nation - and Trump an international war criminal.
Barring Israel - who openly and desperately has wanted us to blow Iran up for year, who else will applaud our actions? Most of the other nations who signed the treaty were our allies. Russia and China at least get to see us weaken ourselves, and make ourselves a pariah.
WE GET NOTHING. Our interests are NOT served by this war! Why does Trump get to destroy this country, even more than terrorists could?
12
Barring Israel - who openly and desperately haswanted us to blow Iran up for year, who else will applaud our actions?
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and all the other Sunni Arab states, that’s who. It isn’t just Israel, @GWBear.
When was the last time you believed something Mr. Trump said?
What makes you think a military strike was 10 minutes away? Why do you think Trump didn't make up the whole thing so he can look like a humanitarian as part of his campaign to win a Nobel Peace Prize?
Who trusts Trump?
Where's the beef?
Dan Kravitz
13
Is it possible that Trump had a moment of commonsense? Nahh! Commonsense is not in his DNA.
So why did he call off the strike? Because he could and it fed his ego. He was excited by the power of giving a military strike order. It made him feel powerful, feel like a real president because people responded "yes sir." Cancelling the strike reinforced his sense of power and his delusion that he is a real president - not just a reality TV personality playing a president.
Of course the crisis is not over. Trump may yet plunge America into another Middle East quagmire. It all depends on how his ego is doing. If the child-man feels deflated he will soothe his wounded ego by inflicting suffering on Iranians. If his ego is swollen he may feel generous and simply Twitter lash the Mullahs with name calling.
But, intentionally do something right? You must be listening to too many Trump lies.
7
This column reminds me of why I consider chicken hawks like Dick Cheney and John Bolton to be among the lowest, most repugnant life forms. Specifically, they contrive to keep themselves out of the dangers of combat, but are always eager to have others put their lives on the line. And they consider themselves to be great patriots to boot---after all, they say "thank you for your service" and wear American flag pins in their lapels.
America needs to say enough is enough, and isolate these simpletons far away from the reins of power.
11
Trump doesn't deserve our applause because he pulled the plug on a problem he created. This isn't a fake, scripted reality TV show, it's real life, and millions of lives are at risk. Of course, those lives have no value to him, or the republican party. To Trump and his criminal republican enablers, war is just another transaction that pays back big donors. Pitiful. Wake up America, before it's too late.
7
"Dagger-tongued daughter Liz"...M.D. can still throw a zinger. Perhaps having a draft-dodger in the White House isn't such a bad thing, and we should remember that the president, in a perverse way, is still a member of the "make-love-war-generation".
The Donald was, once again, more lucky than smart, but he has burnt too many bridges to mount the effective international effort that it would require to subdue Iran by force of arms or sanctions. American will bumble onward, one step forward, two backward with a president who is more concerned with getting re-elected than anything else, trying to look a bit more warm and fuzzy in search of those independent voters, sick of his bragging and bluster.
3
The more articles I read on this fracas, the more it all reminds me of Thucydides: The Mytilenaean Debate (427 B.C.). And later, the Melain Dialogue.
(Folks, Thucydides work 2500 years later, is even more relevant)
Cooler heads prevailed.
I am just worried, that if Trump realizes that he's being seen as a whimp, then we are just one fragile-bombastic-ego away from real mayhem.
Messing in war with Iran, may make Muslim-world draw for or against lines. It would also be an invitation to Russia and China to interfere. Both have been stable trade partners to Iran throughout this time.
I recall an argument in the Dialogues.
Athenians give the Melians an ultimatum to surrender their city or get destroyed.
“It is a law of nature that the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must.”
Myleans argue they are not the enemy, and neutral. Athenianas say, if they accept their neutrality and independence, it makes them look weak.
Myleans say, be careful Athenians, there will come a time when you will come crashing down too.
May woe betide you,...
And guess what woe did betide them when they went on a collision course with Sparta.
So much to learn from past.
Just look with calculated & impartial eye, at Iraq and Afghanistan. Is that not enough?
2
You cannot seriously believe that he called it off at the last minute. He never intended to bomb Iran. He said he was going to do it and then pulled back. It was a perfectly orchestrated play to convince us he was tough then compassionate. It is not believable. It was entirely orchestrated.
657
@Martin Joseph This guy never "perfectly orchestrated" anything in his life. He is a stumbler and bumbler who needs constant rescuing by his lawyers.
50
@Martin Joseph
I confess to never having brought myself to read Trump's ghost-written books on negotiating. As a result I don;t know much about his supposed 'theory" of successful negotiations. But, granted that Trump, whether by personality or design, is mercurial and unreliable, unable to articulate an actual policy and then stay with it, there do seem to be similarities between what he (but hardly anyone else) views as his "success" in dealing with the No. Korean regime and what, if you're right, he's attempting to do with the Iranian regime: create a crisis through bluster and threats, move additional military forces into the region, and then intervene in his self-created mess (starting with his repudiation of the nuclear agreement and the imposition of new sanctions) to "solve" the problem.
Following this scheme has so far produced nothing substantive, but rather only befuddled allies, photo ops, and gross misunderstandings with No. Korea. Why, given the commitment to regime change that Trump's formal counselors advocate, should we expect anything subtantive to come out of this standoff with Iran?
16
@Martin Joseph, your theory rests on the existence of a healthy and sophisticated pre-frontal cortex, capable of multiple-step analysis and planning, as well as impulse control — the existence of which we have not yet seen evidence for.
45
Trump lurches forward and back, careening from one hastily embraced position to another, always in the spotlight, always bellowing a preposterous threat, or promising an alarming action. Then nothing. Round up immigrants, no won’t happen, Iran clear threat, nah just a fluke, more on Mexico secrets revealed soon, it’s in this letter, tough on North Korea, love letters to Kim.
It’s reality show scripting. Stay outrageous, flip things around, keep them excited, what will he do next? Look at me.
7
I was stunned when I read: "I didn't think it was proportionate."
Trump as a new proportionalist standing up against his generals? Good for you, Mr. President!
Next: An environmental turnaround, and you can get your second term in your own boorish way, as far as I am concerned.
I'm getting a little tired of all the fawning over Trump's alleged good judgement in calling back war planes minutes before a bombing run.
That's like lauding the driving skills of the drunk driver because he still had the reflexes to change direction and not hit the mother with baby stroller in the intersection.
But, this is all part of the MSM normalization of Trump that they've sought ever since he was elected.
Some are even referring to HIM as the "guard rails" on his administration after assuring us HE was the one firmly on track between the guard rails of others.
MSM lauding and normalization of Trump will continue as a peace offering to Trump to not threaten reporters who cover his campaign with calls to his rent-a-mobs to go after the evil press.
As Jennifer Rubin said:
"The media’s predilection for false balance and a weird awe of President Trump’s defiance of all moral and constitutional strengths (He defies conventional politics! He breaks all the rules!) leads to the “nothing matters” and “his base is still with him!” sort of coverage that seems to concede, even after the 2018 midterms, that Trump is politically successful."
Now, I would like to laud Dowd for going several weeks without bashing anyone named Clinton.
7
In a few days , or hours , he may tweet: "What's wrong with getting along with Iran? it's a good thing, not a bad thing," and he'll be glad to meet and make a deal with the Ayatollahs . They may even "fall in love."
1
I'm liking the dunce cap image in the accompanying photograph. Well done photo editor!
Poking fun aside, I'm tired of the bloviating and self-aggrandizing mush that spouts from the man's mouth. While I'm glad he didn't strike back, I'm sure it was only because he was told that he would likely lose in the polls.
Also, how incompetent are his advisors if he only found out about the possible casualties 10 minutes before launch?
Problem manufactured, problem solved. Works well in a tweet. Lukewarm thumbs up.
3
So is Tucker Carlson now our de facto Secretary of State? And if so, will Laura Ingraham be the next Press Secretary and Rush Limbaugh replace Mike Pence as Trump’s 2020 running mate? Sounds about right for this reality TV show host-turned-Chief executive, a man without a plan...
4
Thoughts from a foreign subscriber: What frightens me most is the fact that this confused process and chilling presidential incompetence has played out in public, with perhaps only half-truths surfacing. And our fate hangs on this boondoggle!
A deluded cult 'base' supporting this (shudder) person is scary, but so too is a Democrat 'base' supporting (so far) another blithering septuagenarian (disclosure - I'm one too). What on earth is happening to the USA?
3
Ms.Dowd's backhanded compliments for a forestalled attack on Iran might actually push the ego-driven president into the catastrophe she is warning against.
If the rumor is correct Trump's last minute change of heart was due to the sage advice of Tucker Carlson....which would mean we are hardly out of the woods. We are just in another stage of reckless behavior... It's a bit like watching watching a truck in front of you on the highway veering one way and then the other.
It's hard to believe that the same guy who doesn't care about separating toddler from their parents...or even providing them with a bed and bath...is moved by the potential loss of 150 Iranian lives....
3
How strange to write that Trump was right ...about anything! But he was right to call off a stupidly retaliatory strike against Iran. The resulting dead Iranians would have only enflamed and outraged the considerable part of the planet's population that fears and distrusts the United States under this Administration. John Bolton, Mike Pompeo and Gina Halspel could be candidates for future war crime prosecutions should they succeed in goading Trump into starting the next "Endless War."
1
@roane1. “War crime prosecutions”? You are assuming there is any form of LAW left to prosecute anything at all.
Trump thought that his response to the Iranian aggression will not be "proportionate" after 150 Iranians would die due to our response. Someone please remind Trump about the 241 Marines who died in their barracks in Lebanon in 1982 as a result of a truck bomb carried out by Iran's proxies, Hizbollah. How about the 52 U.S. hostages who were seized in their embassy in Teheran, November 1979? If Trump doesn't want to play with the Iranians, he should have never pulled his sword out and then back off just like he did with Kim Jong Un. God help us.
Or the 274 Iranian civilians blown up on Iran Air Flight 655 perhaps?
Iran is threatening our nation exactly how?
Why are we on the brink of war over Iran shooting down one or our over-priced, radio-controlled airplanes?
What did we do to make Iran do that? Along with wagging our finger at Trump and his war-hawk advisers, where’s the honest, comparative discussion so the public can make a fact-based decision about this issue?
Republicans have no national-interests leadership in the Senate. Otherwise, they’d be loudly, publicly stating there was no grave threat to our Constitutional democracy and why.
It’s past time a bunch of old, white males took their meds and stopped this ridiculous muscle-flexing contest. Our enemy is at home. It’s America’s Republican-enabled, gross income inequity and all the side-effects.
4
My dear readers, we are living through a pschotic and amoral time in history led by trump and the republican party who, through lies and deceit, squander our resources (people and treasure) to say nothing of the pain and suffering we inflict on "the other". What have we or the world gained from our interventions? What have we accomplished? The bullies have the keys to the asylum and we the people are letting them run the show. Enough....Vote them out!
2
Suppose, just suppose, it's just as simple as Trump fearing to go down in history as the man who initiated a major war in the Middle East let alone WW III. Suppose his transactional PR ego understands that much. If so, that should tell us Dems how deal with this guy. Thanks Tucker!
1
Trump has no clue about running a business nor a once world class country. Our country started its steep decline with the first Bush starting the Iraq war to defend the Kuwait regime that was stealing oil from Iraq. Then the next incompetent Bush took the advice of Rumsfeld and Cheney whose cronies probably made tons of money from the war at the expense of the country and its taxpayers. Once trump is gone our country will have to work hard to get us out of the hole trump has dug. That is if we haven’t slipped off the edge into a genuine third world country or started a violent revolution.
2
“Right”, is not the word for his decision. It was just another pause in his usual “bring the show to the brink”, then back off. But -Americans r still awaiting the hammer. Good column.
I wonder whether Trump, now chastened from the brink of war, might tell the Iranians that the U.S. would like to rejoin the nuclear deal as a gesture to lower tensions in the region, while also demonstrating to the rest of the world that he is not the madman he seems?
I suppose pigs will fly first . . .
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
The other 1438 min...not so much.
1
Good for Mr. Trump to turn a deaf ear to Bolton and Pompeo.
Until wrong headed war mongers aka fake "tough guys" like Kissinger, Rumsfeld, Cheney and now these two neocon frauds are called on to account for their obvious misjudgement, manipulation of the facts, misuse of national resources and the tragic loss of American and foreign lives, history sadly will continue to repeat itself.
1
"War is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous."
George Orwell.
Sums it up for me.
2
Now if he’d just do a U on ruining national monuments, the environment, vital programs like Social Security, etc. we might be getting somewhere. Also, the Iran thing was too close for comfort. What if the planes were in the air? And a neocon hid the cancel code to protect his precious bodily fluids. It’s Dr Strangelove! Life can imitate art.
Tucker Carlson, who would have thought? It is true that (our) enemies make for strange bedfellows. But better this frenemy than Hannity. Yet, I have this nagging feeling that it was more about outside influence that this "miraculous" change of Trump's schizophrenic mind occurred. To wit, Putin, and possibly Netanyahu. In spite of Bibi's ranting against the Iran Nuclear Deal - proving to be one of the wisest of multi-lateral agreements - Israel would be the most vulnerable if Iran was to retaliate against a US strike. The group is called Hezbollah, which like its funder Iran is the enemy of all enemies of Israel. So we sit and wait for the next move. How foolish of this arrogant administration that the solution is right in front of its eyes. That is, going back to the table and strengthening the Iran Nuclear Deal. But alas, Pompeo is not Kerry, and certainly Trump is not even close to the wisdom and prescience of his predecessor President Obama.
5
If the leader/s of the country wanting the war, in this case the USA, were obliged to 'lead the charge', in other words go into
battle leading the ordinary soldiers, sailors and airmen............
Would there ever be another war?
1
Trump won, not merely because of his red-hot base, maybe the 30 percent who wear the hats, but also, (depending on the state), another 15 to 25 percent, who are stealth Trump voters, but keep quiet about it. They like his push-back on China’s trade and currency cheating; they agree that many regulations had been too tight; but they are not so pro-carbon as other GOP voters, nor so anti-abortion, or pro-gun; and perhaps most of all, they abhor war — killing, destruction, wasted resources, scarred minds of the survivors. This, not the “low energy” moniker Trump put on Jeb Bush, is the real reason they chose Trump over Jeb early on — just the way Obama beat Hillary in 2008, because of her vote for the Iraq war, while Obama, like an oracle from a state legislature called it for what it was, a “dumb war.”
Trump owns his base. He’s not going to get “primaried,” not from the right — despite what Bolton, Hannity, or Liz say.
Perhaps Trump will pivot now, ever so slightly, to keep his middle 20 percent, maybe even expand it.
At least now we know, in Trump’s mind, that the human life of an Iranian is worth more than $1 million each, as killing 150 people for a $150 million drone is “not proportionate.” It’s a start.
Back to Cheney-Bush: those lives lost, those trillions of dollars wasted, the national mind ripped by cognitive dissonance- were the cause of the 2008 crash, if not by direct economic interactions, then by divine retribution — our curse.
We are lucky Trump loves life.
A concerted antiwar movement needs to begin now. This is absurd. It is obscene.
Bolton needs to be forced out.
The perpetual war that is the US foreign policy needs to stop.
What are we all going to collectively do about it?
I'm not a protester by nature, but I for one am very uncomfortable sitting around waiting for others to do something. I want neither American nor Iranian blood spilled because our leaders are picking fights like schoolyard bullies.
1
Don't forget that during the Presidential Campaign, Trump claimed that he had a plan for peace in the Middle East (which he insisted on keeping secret) and that he knew more than the generals. Once again, he is exposed as a clueless fraud. Donald is completely lost and that fact that he is relying on Yosemite Sam Bolton and Koch Bros. agent Mike Pompeo for guidance ought to scare anybody to death. A confederacy of dunces. Nevertheless, Trump's base will continue to cheer him on, which is all he really cares about. "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb bomb Iran!" were the lyrics to the song last time, sung to the Beach Boys tune. Looks like we are in for a reprise.
2
Who knows why trump canceled the raid, probley even he doesn't know!! The good thing is its canceled. I hope trump and pals have learned that the maximum pressure campaign will just make Iran shoot, not talk. Its time to somehow reenter the nuk deal.
1
Yes - some wisdom from Maureen. Will we start talking about the 1953 take over of Iran by US - CIA - and the problems flowing from those actions taken?
2
A war with Iran would be suicide for the America that Trump wants to keep "great". To the best of my knowledge, Bolton, Pompeo and the other warmongers do not know the Persian language and are ignorant about how Iranians think. By the way, the Persians make the tastiest rice in the world.
and the clock strikes midnight one second a day......how about the other 86,399 seconds?
Trump's motto: Speak loudly and carry a small stick. Rex Tillerson's description of Trump continues to be validated on a daily basis.
3
Much better he listens to Carlson than to Hannity. Maybe he could make Carlson the Secretary of Defense. He could do worse.