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Trump risks credibility with policy that veers between threats and inaction
The Washington Post ^ | May 17, 2019 at 7:36 PM | Karen DeYoung , Liz Sly and Josh Dawsey

Posted on 05/17/2019 7:59:52 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

As Iran girds for possible war with the United States, President Trump may turn out to be the best friend it has.

Despite the saber-rattling of senior aides and Trump’s own tweets, when push has come to shove over the past two years, the president has repeatedly backed away from the threatened use of military force.

Whether the target has been North Korea, with which warnings of “fire and fury” have become little more than an exchange of “beautiful” letters between Trump and Kim Jong Un, or Venezuela, where the threat of “all options” has failed to upset the status quo, the president has blinked. With Iran, the dispatch of a U.S. aircraft carrier and a bomber task force, as well as reported plans to deploy 120,000 troops, were quickly followed by Trump’s insistence that he only wants to talk to Iranian leaders.

Trump has said that there is no inconsistency in his administration’s messaging but that the image of incoherence can be useful. “At least Iran doesn’t know what to think, which at this point may very well be a good thing!” he tweeted Friday.

But as he moves more deeply into the second half of his term with major foreign policy issues unresolved, Trump’s credibility has suffered, and his options have narrowed.

“If you make threats and then people decide you aren’t going to follow through, if you’re looking for the reaction and you stop getting the reaction, the options are either to make larger threats or to stop going down that road at all,” said Jon B. Alterman, Middle East Program director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Cuba; Japan; News/Current Events; Russia
KEYWORDS: cuba; defundnpr; defundpbs; districtofcolumbia; djibouti; domesticenemies; enemiesofthepeople; eritrea; fakenews; gcc; hassannasrallah; hezbollah; houthi; iran; jeffbezos; joshdawsey; karendeyoung; korea; lebanon; lizsly; maga; mediawingofthednc; morefakenews; nevertrumper; nicaragua; npr; partisanmediashills; patbuchanan; patrickbuchanan; patrickjbuchanan; pbs; pitchforkpat; presstitutes; putinsbuttboys; pyongyang; republicofkorea; russia; saudiarabia; smearmachine; sudan; uae; unitedarabemirates; venezuela; wapo; washingtoncompost; washingtonpost; whataretheirfrnicks; yemen
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1 posted on 05/17/2019 7:59:52 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I forgot to add the Compost Alert.


2 posted on 05/17/2019 8:00:43 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Capitalism produces EVERYTHING Socialists/Communists/Democratic-Socialists wish to "redistribute.")
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Top Iranian legislator calls for Iran-US talks ‘to end tensions’

https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3750163/posts


3 posted on 05/17/2019 8:02:49 PM PDT by Innovative
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

And of course, Dorkbama the Muslim eunuch quota boy’s threats were always believed by everyone.

Like those lines he always drew.
Lines that were always crossed.
With nothing happening.
Hey, Wa Po, we are so far ahead of you we could be dead in the water for years before you low-T journalists could catch up.


4 posted on 05/17/2019 8:04:58 PM PDT by Da Coyote
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Liberal lies/opinions posing as news!


5 posted on 05/17/2019 8:05:44 PM PDT by Grampa Dave ( You can't normalize the type of behavior the left is trying to normalize, when, it isn't normal!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

The establishment would love to goad Trump into military action in the ME. They really don’t want to goad him into stronger action at the border. Hmmm.


6 posted on 05/17/2019 8:06:43 PM PDT by cdcdawg (If white, western culture makes you feel out of place, THAT IS BECAUSE IT IS NOT YOUR PLACE!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Iran is broke and the mullahs hang onto power by their fingernails.


7 posted on 05/17/2019 8:07:25 PM PDT by lurk
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

The leftist liars and assorted Trump hating mental cases want Trump to blow it and get into endless Bush style neocon “compassionate wars”, wasting multiple trillions in American treasure on top of thousands of American lives.

Not this time. If it’s ever necessary to go into Iran, I’m very confident it there won’t be no BS compassionate war and will be expedited swiftly.


8 posted on 05/17/2019 8:10:11 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Iran is glass if they keep this BS up.


9 posted on 05/17/2019 8:16:12 PM PDT by Eddie01 (I just want to be free)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I love the President but
not everything he does.


10 posted on 05/17/2019 8:19:42 PM PDT by sparklite2 (Don't mind me. I'm just a contrarian.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

The art of the deal?


11 posted on 05/17/2019 8:22:32 PM PDT by Don Corleone (Nothing makes the delusional more furious than truth.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Some days the media doesn’t leave any shadow of doubt that they’re #EnemiesOfThePeople.


12 posted on 05/17/2019 8:26:49 PM PDT by TigersEye (This is the age of the death of reason.)
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To: cdcdawg

Maybe that’s what DiFi and the Iranian ambassador were talking about on the phone - setting Trump up?
Wouldn’t doubt either one of them would stoop so low


13 posted on 05/17/2019 8:48:12 PM PDT by ZOOKER (Until further notice the /s is implied...)
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To: ZOOKER

I think we can assume the lowest motives for both of them. The Democrats and also an unsettling number of Republicans would love to spark a war in the ME. Trump is having to take heat from both sides while trying to do what is in AMERICA’s interest.


14 posted on 05/17/2019 8:59:46 PM PDT by cdcdawg (If white, western culture makes you feel out of place, THAT IS BECAUSE IT IS NOT YOUR PLACE!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I see the wall being built.
I’m good.


15 posted on 05/17/2019 9:00:02 PM PDT by MrEdd (Caveat Emptor)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Each writer of this rubbish used their sole braincell. So three braincells all up. About on par for the commie media.


16 posted on 05/17/2019 9:00:29 PM PDT by Long Jon No Silver
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Karen DeYoung , Liz Sly and Josh Dawsey—They were all rated tops in their 7th grade English class. That was last month.


17 posted on 05/17/2019 9:21:34 PM PDT by Mark (Celebrities... is there anything they do not know? -Homer Simpson)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

The Washington Post talks about Trumps creditably! Now that’s rich!


18 posted on 05/17/2019 9:39:33 PM PDT by MCF (If my home can't be my Castle, then it will be my Alamo)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

A bunch of Millennials writing about military strategy is no different than Mother Teresa explaining the flight control system on a jet aircraft operates.

Not worth our time to read.


19 posted on 05/17/2019 9:54:12 PM PDT by BobL (I eat at McDonald's and shop at Walmart - I just don't tell anyone.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Have to agree...at some point he has to pull the trigger.


20 posted on 05/18/2019 12:16:37 AM PDT by rrrod (just an old guy with a gun in his pocket)
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