Please disable your adblock and script blockers to view this page

Trump issues bellicose warning to Iran over Baghdad embassy attack - The - The Washington Post


the U.S. Embassy
Trump’s
Marines
The U.S. Embassy
SAFE!”Defense
State
Kataib Hezbollah
Twitter
the Islamic State
The White House
the White House
Army
National Security Council
Mantid International
PolicyFree


Trump
Mark T. Esper
Lindsey O. Graham
Benghazi
Obama
Hillary Clinton
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Christopher Hill
Crocker
Barry McCaffrey
Ollivant
Seung Min Kim
Free


Iranian
R
Americans
Republicans
Iraqi
Islamic
Democrats
Kurds
Iranians
Syrian


Middle East
Green Zone
the Middle East


the U.S. Embassy


Iran
Iraq
U.S.
Baghdad
Tehran
America
the United States
Israel
Saudi Arabia
Florida
S.C.
Libya
Syria
The United States
Washington
Benghazi
Turkey


New Year’s Eve

Positivity     40.00%   
   Negativity   60.00%
The New York Times
SOURCE: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-issues-warning-to-iran-after-embassy-attack-but-remains-reluctant-to-get-more-involved-in-region/2019/12/31/1704cf72-2be5-11ea-bcd4-24597950008f_story.html
Write a review: The Washington Post
Summary

Graham (R-S.C.), a Trump ally and foreign policy adviser, had breakfast with the president Tuesday and said in an interview that Trump was determined to “have no Benghazi on his watch,” a reference to the 2012 attack on U.S. government facilities in Libya that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.Republicans harshly criticized the Obama administration and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the response to the Benghazi attack, and Trump’s wariness over any comparisons between the two events was on display Tuesday.“The Anti-Bengahzi!” he tweeted about his administration’s response to the situation in Baghdad.Graham said Trump is not looking for a fight and hopes Iran will take steps that allow tensions to be ratcheted down soon.“The goal is to de-escalate, but it takes two to do that,” he said, adding that Trump and his national security team are discussing “a lot of options” he would not detail.In general, the United States has options to confront Iran indirectly through military action against its proxy forces in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere, and to increase economic and political pressure on Tehran.The United States could also retaliate against Iraq, an ally of both Washington and Tehran, for failing to do more to protect the embassy and the American contractor whose death Friday at the hands of an Iranian-backed militia set off the current crisis. “I had absolutely nothing to do with going into Iraq, and I was totally against it.”Trump has long viewed U.S. involvement in the Middle East as a political loser that leads only to the loss of money and lives, according to a Trump adviser who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the president’s views.“I can tell you 100 percent that the president has no desire to get into some kind of new conflict in the Middle East during 2020,” the person said.Speaking to reporters at Mar-a-Lago shortly before New Year’s Eve festivities there, Trump backed off his aggressive tone against Iran that he had leveled on Twitter earlier Tuesday.“Do I want to?

As said here by Anne Gearan, Philip Rucker, Josh Dawsey