Danger man Trump strikes again

I'm completely baffled by all this. What had Iran done to provoke such an extreme reaction from Trump? Wasn't it he who refused to implement the nuclear treaty with Iran that had been brokered under Obama? And who has been niggling away at them ever since?

As for the Iranian regime and its ilk being more of a menace to the world than any Western leaders.. it's laughable. Does Iran have a massive arsenal of nuclear weapons trained on the West to wreak irreparable destruction?

Haven't we learned our lessons from the past? We have problems with the ME because we wouldn't leave them alone; couldn't resist the urge to meddle because the oil was so important to us. So we've created hatred and enmity and now propose to create a bit more?

Trump is a lunatic. FGS don't cheer him on...

Does Iran have a massive arsenal of nuclear weapons trained on the West to wreak irreparable destruction? hmm
BBC news:

"Iran has declared it will no longer abide by any of the restrictions imposed by the 2015 nuclear deal."

"In a statement it said it would no longer observe limitations on its capacity for enrichment, the" "level of enrichment, the stock of enriched material, or research and development."

"The statement came after a meeting of the Iranian cabinet in Tehran".

Thanks Mr Trump. stupid dangerous man

Yes, I know it was developing a nuclear capability. That was what the 2015 nuclear deal was about.

But does it now have a massive nuclear arsenal trained on the Western world? Such as to justify Opal's rather wild statement?

I honestly don't know MaizieD, but I'm hoping that whatever they've got in store, they keep to themselves. I'm hoping and praying that it won't escalate to us having to find out the hard way.

Hardly a wild statement - have you watched the news tonight? The Iranian Government shouting "Death to America" and an Iranian protestor stating that they would be happy for their children to become martyrs. That is the kind of mentality you are dealing with. No-one has answered my earlier question - exactly how much provocation does the Western world have to take before we strike back? Trump's response was reasonable and proportionate and no civilians were injured, yet Iran is now threatening to increase its nuclear arsenal. Some of you are so quick to criticise Trump, why aren't you condemning Iran? They're not exactly perfect examples of peacekeepers and protectors of human rights, are they? Beggars belief really.

That breaks down to about 24.00 a week-

This thread moves so fast! That last post was in response to warchest cost-

jura

anyone who believes we are there to save anyone or help with human rights is just deluded
That was the sentence which was confusing.

I wasn't aware that we had troops training and helping in Iran.
We do have a few troops at the moment in Iraq who are training and helping the Iraqi and Kurdish Security Forces.

Opal the protestors have been shouting 'Death to America' and burning the American flag for ages on a weekly basis.

Someone must have a good business there making flags to burn.

Well, can't see that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe or Kylie Moore-Gilbert will be released any time soon which is extremely worrying.

A good holiday destination?
Hardly

The Iranian Government shouting "Death to America" and an Iranian protestor stating that they would be happy for their children to become martyrs.

How, precisely, Opal, is Iran going to achieve 'death to America'?

They won't achieve it, MaizieD, but their extremists will certainly plan to retaliate. I used that as an example of their mentality. I don't think you would ever see the UK or American Governments shouting "death to Iran" would you? The mentality of the middle eastern countries is far more intolerant and uncompromising than that of the West.

The country that has the most armed forces stationed across the world - in over 150 countries, many of which pose no direct military (though perhaps political and economic) threat to it - is the USA. And it's my view that the USA has been, and continues to be, involved - either militarily or strategically - in almost every war or violent upheaval.

That tradition continues. Trump took an aggressive stance from the word go and tore up the nuclear treaty. The first provocation and, I believe, designed to provoke. As to the current incident, if the Iranians had used a drone to kill US military leaders while they were guests in an ally's country I don't suppose the response from American politicians and the American public would be much different.

It seems that Trump wants a war - and, as I said before, it's always a good way of distracting the general public and appealing to its, in my view, misplaced patriotism.

It will threaten the lives and security of hundreds of thousands of ordinary people and it is particularly worrying that this country is very likely to be dragged into it, given our so-called "special relationship", which only seems to come into play at times such as these.

Soleimani was a terrorist by all accounts, he had been responsible for the killing of many US citizens, was planning yet more killings, and the US has decided to take him out, without harming any Iraqi civilians in Baghdad. Sounds reasonable and proportionate to me.

It will threaten the lives and security of hundreds of thousands of ordinary people - Soleimani was already doing that!!! And the Iranian Government seems to be planning yet more attacks. Has it occurred to you that by executing him, more lives may have been saved?

Please tell me an alternative way of dealing with hard-line murdering terrorists that actually works?

There are hard line murdering terrorists who can be assassinated without creating a war. But General Suleimani was not one of those .General Suleimani was a national hero in Iran and has now become a national martyr.

President Trump has deflected the attention of the hounds of impeachment and increased his popularity among his followers. This popularity will wane when the US soldiers start coming back in body bags.

Eloethan is absolutely right in her statement that the USA has been involved in every war or violent upheaval in my lifetime. None of those wars have taken place in their own country of course.
So far as I can see, Soleimani had not done anything new to precipitate Trumps action. Trump says he was plotting terrorism so needed taking out. Trump successfully plotted terrorism or war crimes in the assassination of Soleimani.
He's a war monger, living up to his own rhetoric. He's deflecting attention from the impeachment issues and this will increase his popularity amongst his aggressive, badly educated supporters.
We face the prospect of another war in the Middle East. The US won't lose troops in the way they did in Vietnam, they'll use their terrifying war weapons to murder civilians. It's sickening.

One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter.

It was not just Soleimani, the policy is that of Iran to expand the influence of Shia Islam, their fight is just as much with the Sunni Muslims as the west. There won’t be a full scale war, there will be some retaliation, the Iranians have already proved that they can strike oil refineries with cruise missiles and the US knows that it’s ships are vulnerable, as are ours.

The Chinese will be quite willing to supply arms to Iran they might not be as advanced, they are a serious threat.

I agree with Davidhs on this, there won’t be a war in the Middle East, it will be covert retaliation by Iran.

It'll be the intelligence service keeping us safe rather than boots on the ground.

It's been that way for a long time.

Anyone seen the video of Trump from 2011 saying Obama wanted a war to ensure his re-election? Pot-kettle-black?
I'm surprised no one has commented on how Iran has in the past waged war on Islamic State and were responsible for keeping them under control in Syria. The General was the mastermind behind that. I know it doesn't fit the agenda to think Iran and our country may have interests in common but actually the situation is much more complicated than some think.

The situation certainly is complicated trisher, you’re absolutely correct in that. I don’t agree with your view on our armed forces, but I absolutely agree with you about how complicated the situation in the ME is, and apparently always has been, well in recent history and probably before that too. I don’t have any answers, if there had been answers I think they would have been found years ago. Of course social media and internet are not helping the situation. For most ordinary people the internet age is a wonderful boon, but in the hands of people like Trump and Soleimani it’s lethal. I heard that they were trading insults on Twitter.
I think the current situation is extremely worrying, and frightening.

Incidentally, no I haven’t seen the video from 2011, doesn’t surprise me though.

I'm surprised no one has commented on how Iran has in the past waged war on Islamic State and were responsible for keeping them under control in Syria.
They certainly played a part but were not wholly responsible.
They were, however, backing and advising the Kurds in their fight against and it was the Americans who did not co-operate with the other countries in the region.

Although the Iranian contribution was ultimately more modest than that of the Americans, Iran was nimbler in backing the Iraqi Kurds. “Iran’s security institutions are often able to make decisions and act more quickly in an emergency than their U.S. counterparts, who have to navigate a web of bureaucracy,” said a Kurdish analyst who was present during the battle

They didn't just support the Kurds although they certainly did that
^ Iranian intervention in Iraq (2014–present)^
In mid-June 2014, according to American and British sources, Iran sent Qasem Soleimani, commanding general of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force (IRGC-QF), to Iraq to help the government organize against ISIL. Later that month Iran started flying drones over Iraq, and by August, according to sources like Reuters, Iranian soldiers were in Iraq fighting ISIL.[303] One war correspondent suggested that Iran "joined the air war" against ISIL on 21 June

In July, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Iran sent several Su-25 aircraft to Iraq, supported by Iranian/Iraqi ground crews trained in Iran.[ In early August, those Su-25s began combat against ISIL, according to Business Insider.

By September, according to Business Insider, Iranian Quds Force personnel were deployed to Samarra, Baghdad, Karbala, and the abandoned U.S. military post formerly known as Camp Speicher.[31] At the end of November 2014, an Israeli website claimed to have seen Iranian F-4 Phantom II jet-fighters bombing ISIL in eastern Iraq; a claim the U.S. army verified.

In March and May 2015, American commentators indicated Qasem Soleimani was "leading Iraq's military strategy against ISIL