Once Again, Trump Brandishes the Nuclear Option Against Iran

Trump has always been a bully and a whiner. For 40 years he has claimed he was treated "unfairly" and the system was rigged against him.

 

Oh, clever plan. It worked. Let’s oblige him, annihilate every single Islamic tyranny, and be done with.

 

Once Again, Trump Brandishes the Nuclear Option Against Iran

Be glad he is only brandishing. I thought the Russian propaganda on this forum was bad. At least those propagandists used some facts and truths. This is complete anti-American nonsense.

 

He handled that system pretty well for 40 years, wouldn't you say?

 

What 'facts' do you think are necessary to establish that he has on several occasions been "brandishing" the "nuclear option" against Iran?

In the meantime, and in follow up to the article I had posted from the Guardian, the Australian PM has indicated that all the Aussies have signed up for is helping patrol the waters of the Persian Gulf (which is already quite a stupid move on their part), but that the Australians aren't interested in any 'coalition of the willing" or unwilling against Iran! Regardless of the US modernizing its "nukes" or not!

https://www.theguardian.com/austral...be-drawn-into-any-military-conflict-with-iran
Morrison insists Australia will not be drawn into military conflict with Iran
PM says there’s no discussion of any Australian involvement after Trump’s recent comments raising nuclear option

 

OBL hated the Saudis as much as he hated America.

 

In military terms, the initiative has passed to Iran. We are responding to their moves. For a world power to let the initiative slip to a country a tenth its size is not a good omen. That's a sign of fundamental weakness.

 

Leaving aside your main argument, your comment about Iran shows the fundamentally skewed perceptions regarding the country in America. This is the product of 3 factors: first, the fact that the decline of Iran (known in the West historically as Persia, albeit the correct name for the entire country would have always been Iran) as a major power roughly coincided with the rise of the United States as a nation in the 18th century, where for much of America's short history as a 'superpower', Iran was not a major power. Second, the fact that the Ottoman empire basically separated Iran from Europe, even though Iran was a rival power to the Ottomans even when the latter was a major threat to Europe. And finally, the fact that there are those who simply don't want to give Iran any appropriate recognition because of political and geopolitical reasons, particularly ever since Iran's revolution in 1979.

Otherwise, and just to correct you on the facts, Iran is actually a country of 85 million, with a landmass equal to the United States east of the Mississippi river, and even with all sanctions and everything, with a GDP and GDP per capita which (measured in real, as opposed to nominal terms) would show it to have a GDP (PPP index) that is almost 2 trillion US and a GDP per capita of more then $20,000 USD. In other words, the United States is actually something like less than 3 times the size of Iran in population, landmass, and with a real GDP per capita that is also less than 3 times that of Iran. (For a host of reasons, using nominal US dollar GDP is very misleading for a country like Iran)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html

 

I wasn't clear. Population isn't a measure of power (or at least not a good one). Money is. Iran's GDP is $450 billion. (https://tradingeconomics.com/iran/gdp). Ours is $19 TRILLION. Our defense budget alone is almost twice as much as Iran's entire economy.

 

You seem to have an interest in all this, so game this out with me: what is Iran's next move, and what is our response?

 

Well, let's see if we can't quench his dying thirst for justice. I say, grant the sociopathy his dying wish. I say wipe the inhuman murdering Saudis off the planet, like snot from the nose, and toss them into mankind's toilet and flush them into humanity's sewer.

 

Have you ever been successful?

 

You are using wrong figures. Namely, nominal dollar GDP figures. You can never compare an economy like Iran with the US based on those figures.

Here is the CIA estimates of GDP based on real US dollars. Iran's GDP (2017 est) is put at 1.6 trillion USD, not $450 billion (which is nominal US dollar GDP figures).
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2001rank.html

For the same reason why nominal figures don't tell you anything about the actual size of an economy like Iran, you can't also compare the military budget of Iran with the US (or Saudi Arabia, which has the 3rd largest military budgets in the world after the US and China and below Russia). Nominal US Dollars are significant when it comes to countries who rely on trade (imports) to purchase their military equipment, but for a country like Iran they don't they tell you much at all.

To give an example, just assume Iran's Bavar 373 air defense system is equal (if not much better) than America's Patriot system, but the Patriot costs 20 times more for the Saudis to acquire from the than it costs Iran to produce the Bavar 373. The fact that the Saudis paid 20 times more for the system doesn't mean they have 20 times Iran's ability in this regard.

 

We don't disagree. I said be glad brandishing is all he did.

Australia can do whatever it thinks is in its best interests. I'm pretty sure the U.S. will have to take you on all by itself.

 

My first interest is to educate people about Iran, which is the probably the least understood country on earth in the West.

As for your question, Iran's main focus is to let the US and its proxies understand that bullying Iran will not work. If it feels that message is beginning to be heeded, it will show itself open to finding a reasonable accommodation to reduce tensions. But reasonable from Iran's perspective isn't going to look at all to bending to the mantra of unreasonable demands on Iran which you have heard so much that you feel they are reasonable. If no reasonable accommodation is reached, Iran will watch carefully what the US and company are doing and react accordingly.

At the end of the day, Iran will not tolerate a huge military build up near its waters and shores.

 

Which US proxies are bullying Iran?

 

US proxies aren't bullying Iran themselves; they have been known to push the US to bully Iran. They are the usual suspects: Israel, Saudi Arabia, and until it began to feel the heat and asked to bail out, the UAE, among others.

 

Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UAE haven't done a damned thing to Iran. What is wrong with you people?

 

All those countries regularly, and publicly, call on the US and the "international community" to act to punish Iran, to enact sanctions against Iran, to take all sorts of hostile acts against Iran. They do it all the time.

 

I think we understand it quite well. It is a dictatorship bent on projecting its will through the use of terrorism.

Being reasonable hasn't changed your country's ways. Bullying hasn't either. I think we both know what will.

 

If bullying doesn't work, stop doing so. You can't be 'reasonable' while bullying. And if you think there is anything else you can do on that road, you are wrong. You might learn the hard way.

 

We might.

 

So stop seizing oil tankers and supporting gangsters in Yemen.

Nesrine Malik【 Wikipedia 】Education, Married, Husband, Age ...
https://www.marathi.tv/political-analyst/nesrine-malik
Nesrine was born in Sudan to Sudanese parents. She has 3 sisters. Malik’s parents left Saudi Arabia and moved around to Kenya and Egypt before settling in London for some time. When Nesrine was a bit older, her family left London and moved to Saudi Arabia where she experienced a life very different from the Western culture that she was used to.

 

Here, there, and everywhere.