NYT: Trump Approves Strikes on Iran, but Then Abruptly Pulls Back

[MelissaB]

Trump Approves Strikes on Iran, but Then Abruptly Pulls Back

WASHINGTON — President Trump approved military strikes against Iran in retaliation for downing an American surveillance drone, but pulled back from launching them on Thursday night after a day of escalating tensions.

As late as 7 p.m. Thursday, military and diplomatic officials were expecting a strike, after intense discussions and debate at the White House among the president’s top national security officials and congressional leaders, according to multiple senior administration officials involved in or briefed on the deliberations.

Officials said the president had initially approved attacks on a handful of Iranian targets, like radar and missile batteries.

The operation was underway in its early stages when it was called off, a senior administration official said. Planes were in the air and ships were in position, but no missiles had been fired when word came to stand down, the official said.

More: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/20/world/middleeast/iran-us-drone.html?fbclid=IwAR2NuydtHSZi0GvaShkCaA0rYAbmchgNPGq7BOTf3f-FZNnRtfBvuhwLxeA

[Glimmer of Hope]

1. Terrifying.

What the hell is happening?

[asiliveandbreathe]

2. A madman at the helm..no strategy - nada..what the hell.....

Those are OUR military personnel he is putting in harms way...OUR American men and women...for what - ego?? he is nothing but a coward.....he disgusts me....

Thanks for this report MelissaB..I was just going to post..Ali Velshi was reporting on 11th hour....I suspect, after this more congressional voices will be calling for impeachment...

[Tiggeroshii]

13. Actually he might be one of the most sane people there

Between Bolton and the defense lobbyists... Which is especially more terrifying.

[SunSeeker]

16. I bet Putin told Trump to back off.

Putin is allied with Iran.

[Tiggeroshii]

20. My guess too

One of the only good things about having his hand up Trump's ass. Unless it doesn't matter and Bolton's hand is further up it. It must get crowded up there

[C_U_L8R]

3. Sure seems staged for a desperate campaign

The orange idiot thinks people will rally around him if stumbles into a war.

[herding cats]

4. Gas prices will skyrocket and the economy will be forced into an escalation of recession.

All over a damn drone being shot down? That's not going to win him a second term.

[Hoyt]

5. For right now, glad someone pulled back. This junk should not have gone this far, though.

[Wellstone ruled]

6. What you should say is,

Putin called this thing off earlier this afternoon. Ponzi Don is way over his ski's on this one. You would have had one Tanker Sideways in the Narrows and China would have put a 100% Tariff on our shit. And the Dumping of a 1.2 trillion in Treasuries would have begun.

folks,you can not fix the Stupid.

[gulliver]

7. Trump's in this for Trump

He knows that if he strikes Iran, all Hell will break loose. Trump just wants to push Iran's buttons and play brinksmanship games with them like he did NK. Then, he'll try to have a summit with Iran or something. They'll refuse. Worst case, he'll try look like a tough guy who kept us out of a war (that he tried to start in the first place).

I hope.

[RainCaster]

8. He finally took his medication

[napi21]

9. My guess is that everybody in that meeting told him DON'T DO IT! Somebody or maybe two

got to him, and he finally accepted the majority decision. Hell, they probably convinced him that it would be bad for HIM.

[StatGirl]

10. My theory is that one of the warmongers talked him into it . . .

. . . Bolton, for example. And then someone wiser convinced him otherwise.

(He doesn't actually know anything about foreign affairs, so it all depends on who is in the room when something happens.)

[Grasswire2]

11. General McCaffrey speculated that Joint Chiefs stepped in to stop it

Planes were in the air, ships in position.

Catch a video of McCaffrey on MSNBC 11th hour if you can. Very thoughtful and detailed.

[Pepsidog]

12. He's a cowards and a bully and showing his fear.

[kairos12]

14. Faux News will be all over Drumpt tomorrow.

[Poiuyt]

15. Hello, Donald? Vladimir here.

[SunSeeker]

18. Yep.

[Captain Zero]

17. Phone call from his Russian buddy?

Putin doesn't want anything in Iran attacked?? Any chance Putin called and told him the Russian advisors that went to Saudi Arabia with the radars the Saudis bought from Russia,, had engineered them to detect the latest warplanes we sold the Saudis, and transferred that know how to the Iranians for the radars they bought from Russia? That's been my bet all along. Funny how that kompromat can work.

[certainot]

19. really fucking stupid. if americans want to send republicans a message

then protests at their rw talk radio chapels would get their attention

those were the stations that blasted the country for years with opposition to obama's deal with iran and enabled mcconnel and trump to tear it down. to not realize the importance in this of those rw radio stations is really fucking stupid

there never would have been an attack on iraq if liberals had protested those radio stations instead of state capitols

[beastie boy]

21. My guess is the Ayatollah made it clear that Iran's number 1 targets will be Trump's properties in

...Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Turkey and India. All within reach of Iran's military.

This is the only thing that can move Trump to change his mind. He couldn't care less about the Joint Chiefs of Staff or setting all of Middle East on fire.

[tishaLA]

22. He musta learned that bombing Iran wa as McCain's dying wish