Trump’s election plan
“Our president (Obama) will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate. He is weak and he is ineffective. So the only way he figures that he is going to get elected – and as sure as you’re sitting there – is to start a war with Iran,”- Donald Trump, November 16, 2011.
‘BIRTHERISM’IS the name given to a movement in the United States that doubts or discredits claims that Barack Obama was born in the US and is therefore ineligible to serve as president. Donald Trump was its most prominent promoter. He claims that he sent investigators to Kenya and this claim was confirmed by Obama’s grandmother.
Later on, he went on television stating that he sent investigators to Hawaii (the state that produced Obama’s birth certificate) and – eyes wide open – declared “...you won’t believe what they are finding out...”.
America sat up and waited in anticipation … the gullible ones.
Obama was, however, elected president. But this charade elevated Trump’s political profile and, with Russia’s help, parachuted him into the White House in 2016.
When Obama started his campaign for a second term, Trump was at it again. Although his antecedents as the son of a Klu Klux Klan member and himself a known racist were well known, his anti-Obama rhetoric was gaining traction. In news conferences, he repeatedly accused Obama of seeking war with Iran to help win the 2012 presidential election.
Obama completed his second term without responding to Trump and demonstrated enormous graciousness to Trump during the transition period.
As he started his presidential career, Trump set as his primary goal, the dismantling of Obama’s legacy. Perhaps his greatest foreign policy achievement was an in6txe5rnbat&iwonMaol raegVreaelmueesnttrwipit.hqxIrdan that would lift certain sanctions on Iran, and Iran would commit to ceasing work on certain nuclear capabilities for purposes of waging war.
The initiative started well and all the partners were satisfied that Iran was holding up its side of the bargain. But Trump claimed that the agreement was born out of weakness. Obama was weak. Trump was strong. So he pulled the US out of the agreement and proceeded to heap unbearable sanctions on Iran while hurling insults their way, angling for the same regime change the US effected in 1953.
As time for re-election drew near, Trump seized upon a weak ally, desperately in need of US assistance to stave off the marauding armies of Russia which had already taken possession of a part of their country.
His approval rating was mired at 42 per cent. His potential opponent was leading him in the polls. So he twisted the arm of this weak ally to dig up dirt on his opponent. He was caught and became the third president in US history to be impeached.
INTERESTING TIMES
Trump was worried. He had never engaged in a clean fight in his life. This is election year. Digging up dirt on his opponent – his trump card – would not work this time. This was the scenario when, last Thursday, he ordered the killing of Quasem Soleimani, a brilliant, charismatic Iranian military commander who was one of the most powerful men in the Middle East.
This action was done in violation of the US rules of war. Congress was kept in the dark. The pretext was that Soleimani was “planning a series of attacks on Americans”. 7/20S/c0a6red10o:u0t0ofAtMheiPrapgaent1s since 9/11, this argument always goes down well with Americans. But Trump can provide no proof of this plan. His mews of capons backed him up by stating that Soleimani had the blood of “hundreds of Americans on his hands, and deserve what he got.”
For as long as I can remember, America has had the blood of thousands on its hands but insists on being regarded as a benevolent big brother. The argument fails to recognise that it is the US that has journeyed thousands of miles to these countries to interfere in these people’s business.
Mohammad Mosaddegh was chosen by Iranians to lead them in 1951. But the US had other plans and sent their CIA 6,319 miles to Tehran, kicked his government out of office and installed their handpicked puppet, who served the US but not Iranians.
Soleimani was Iran’s chief diplomat in the region. It is he who saved southern Iraq from ISIS. He was a revered cultural icon.
This excursion by Trump is widely seen as American arrogance and a desire for global hegemony. It will decrease rather than increase the security of all Americans in this volatile region of the Middle East.
Early high-level statements from Iranian leaders warn of dire consequences and a vengeful response. This is likely to come through proxy, most likely through Iraq.
Another Donald – Sutherland, that is – in his character in the film disclosure says, “the Chinese say ‘may you live in interesting times’. Well, this has been the most interesting merger since my second marriage”.
Let’s see.