The impeachment “trial” is over; let the spin-boasting begin. The trump (ed: retain lower case) story, however, may be far from done. No one knows his crimes Lev Parnas or John Bolton may reveal. So, consider something very different, even further down the line. Just a thought.
The president recently ordered the illegal assassination of a military leader of a country with which we are NOT at war on soil of a third-party country. Since then he, his allies, and surrogates have been lying to the American public with a shifting rationale, hoping the gullible base voters will believe it.
In return, Iran launched a precision missile attack on Iraqi military bases staffed with American troops to demonstrate their capability to inflict structural damage without human deaths. After an initial Administration denial, troop commanders (but not trump) have acknowledged at least 11 injured soldiers. It was an opening salvo in both figurative and literal terms.
In 2011 private citizen Donald trump (ed: retain lower case) accused then-president Barack Obama of trying to start a war with Iran to garner election support. Whatever the truth of that accusation, Obama won the election without going to war with Iran.
In 2020 president Donald trump (ed: retain lower case) is threatening war with Iran to distract public attention from his own impeachment trial (where he may not be convicted by a servile Senate, but he will forever carry the indelible stain of impeachment), and later in hopes to win re-election.
The political term is to “wag the dog,” based on the eponymous 1993 novel, a subsequent 1997 movie, and real-life suspicions in 1998. That year President Bill Clinton ordered missile strikes against Afghanistan and Sudan during his Lewinsky scandal and later bombed Iran during his impeachment proceedings.
The current president unilaterally withdrew America from the successful multinational Iran Nuclear Deal, placing the entire world in greater jeopardy. He has increased economic sanctions on Iran, hoping to gain greater renegotiating leverage, but has underestimated the collective martyrdom Iranians feel as a result. His latest miscalculation has intensified Iran’s opposition and alienated previous Iraqi allies. What a middle east mess he has created!
Iranians now hate America even more, but realize they are no military match. Instead Iran is well-equipped to conduct asymmetric warfare, where opponents have vastly different powers (the tale of David and Goliath is a classic example). Iran would like nothing better than to see trump (ed: retain lower case) repudiated at our ballot box and removed from office.
Consider now the possibility of an election “October Surprise” – orchestrated directly or through proxy by Iran – favoring whoever is the president’s political opponent. It might be a cyberattack or election interference or social media influence or soft-target terrorism. Hmmm.