The crisis at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad appears to be cooling off.
The Popular Mobilization Forces, the umbrella organization of several Shiite militias, ordered protesters to leave the embassy “out of respect” for the Iraqi government’s directions Tuesday, according to the newspaper.
Several hundred rejected the order initially until a Kataib Hezbollah official declared victory and told them to depart from the area.
This is good, because the last thing we need is a genuine international crisis while The Cretin is in charge of foreign policy. The embassy has suspended operations, however, so things are still not normal.
Meanwhile, Kim Jong “Rocket Man” Un appears to have given up pretending to be charmed by Trump
North Korea is planning to adopt a hard-line policy toward the United States that involves taking denuclearization off the table amid perceptions that President Donald Trump is vulnerable politically, a source familiar with the North Korean leadership’s current mindset told CNN.
The source said this new policy is likely the so-called “Christmas gift” floated by a top North Korean official earlier this month. It is expected to include abandoning negotiations with Washington and consolidating Pyongyang’s status as a nuclear weapons state.
Pyongyang will also no longer pursue sanctions relief as a means of achieving economic development either in the short-term or long-term, but will instead increase its commitment to the state’s ideology of self-reliance, known as Juche.
David Sanger writes at The New York Times,
The protests in Iraq calmed on Wednesday, at least for now, and Mr. Kim has not yet lit off his latest “strategic weapon.” But the events of recent days have underscored how much bluster was behind Mr. Trump’s boast a year ago that Iran was “a very different nation” since he had broken its economy. They also belied his famous tweet: “There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.”
Today the most generous thing one could say about those statements is that they were wildly premature. Many foreign policy experts say he fundamentally misjudged the reactions of two major American adversaries. And neither seems to fear him, precisely the critique he leveled at Barack Obama back in the days when Mr. Trump declared America’s toughest national security challenges could be solved as soon as a president the world respected was in office.
As in all things, Trump came into office — and retains — childishly cartoonish beliefs about foreign policy.
Going back to Iraq — I was alarmed when I heard about the military strikes in Iraq and Syria in retaliation of the death of an American contractor. I feel bad about the contractor, but at this point we should have learned that retarliation just encourages more violence.
Max Boot — and I can’t believe I’m quoting Max Boot — wrote,
The only effective U.S. response to the Iranian threat since Reagan’s tanker war was President Barack Obama’s decision to conclude a deal with Iran in 2015 that would freeze its nuclear program. The deal did nothing to curb Iran’s regional power play and may have even fueled it by lifting economic sanctions — which is why I and others opposed it at the time. But it did at least stop Iran’s development of nuclear weapons. President Trump blundered by exiting the nuclear deal in 2018 and imposing economic sanctions on Iran in 2019, even though it was complying with the agreement.
Nice of you to almost admit you were wrong about the treaty, Max Boot.
Pushed into a corner, Iran and its proxies have lashed out by allegedly attacking oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, shooting down a U.S. drone, hitting a major Saudi oil facility with cruise missiles — and now rocketing a compound near Kirkuk, Iraq. The latter attack, which killed an American contractor and injured four U.S. troops on Friday, led Trump to retaliate with airstrikes across Iraq and Syria that killed 25 members of Kataib Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia blamed for the rocket attack, and sparked anti-American outrage. The embassy invasion on Tuesday was Iran’s riposte to make clear that it will not bow to American pressure. Your move, Mr. Trump.
Let’s hope Trump goes back to tweeting about Nancy Pelosi. Anything he might do will be wrong.
But Trump shows little interest in either seriously negotiating or fighting. He has waged economic warfare on Iran while doing nothing to curb its regional aggression; indeed, by withdrawing U.S. troops from part of northern Syria, he has allowed an extension of Iranian influence. So we are left with the worst of all possible worlds: Iran is once again waging a low-intensity conflict, and America once again has no effective response.
Like a modern-day Gulliver, President Trump is metaphorically wandering around a Middle East where he’d rather not be, tied up both by smaller powers whose interests are not his own — and by America’s illusions about the region, perpetuated by Trump who somehow believes he can force Iran to bend to his will. The odds are that the situation for the US in Iraq and Iran is likely to get worse before it gets still worse.
See also At U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Trump’s Middle East Rhetoric Meets Reality.
No bullet dodged. It's still in the gun. Where I hope it stays. Here's a potential bullet:
If I'm the leader of a country that's an enemy of America – or one that just wants to "play" tRUMP, and/or Americans – I would make whatever move I wanted in the next month or so.
Every country in the world knows that our POTUS is a sad little man with no brains, is gullible, unempathetic, stupid and ignorant, AND narcissistic!
"HELLO MOTHERLOAD!"
I know that when the Senate starts its part in the House's impeachment charge, tRUMP's is going to be going bugfuck nuts! He will be totally consumed by rage and fear. AND WHAT ABOUT HIS NARCISSISTIC EGO?!?
Now, if my country started something at that time, I know that tRUMP can't keep control of a normal situation. But add a "Problem B," and someone else adds a ""Problem C" – with impeachment at the same time – not only won't tRUMP be able handle it, tRUMP's entire cabinet won't be able to handle him.
And so, with that fustercluck going on, who's going to handle the problem I gave tRUMP?
I win!
'Fasten your seatbelts, there's going to be some bumpy nights' – or month(s).
You mean Donnie has been jilted by Rocket Man? Seduced and abandoned? Wow, such a shame that Rocket Man lead Donnie down the garden path with his sweet nothings. I can't understand it, I thought Rocket Man got off on the bad boy types. He's such a player. I guess there must be some truth to the song lyric…Players only love you when they're playing.
Well, at least he didn't get pinned.,,,,,,,
What's the story, morning glory
Did you hear about Donnie and Kim?
Did they really get pinned?
Did he pin the pin on, or was he too shy?
Well, it wouldn't hurt. Maybe after November we'll have one of those.
It's almost as if giving your adversary everything they want and making a high-profile declaration of success that you bank your entire presidency on leaves you with nowhere to go if your adversary changes his mind about things later on down the road.
A real president would have known that. For that matter, a successful businessman who's good at making deals would have known that too.
Hosea gets a minor prophet role in writings about the Hebrew bible or Old Testament as some know it. A prophet and an inspiration more major than that, me thinks. This must be a part of the bible that evangelicals ignore which conflicts with their gospel of greed. They continue to sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.
It is the law of unintended consequences which is taught at the Academy of Hard Knocks. James Clavell's historical novel based on the fall of the Shah of Iran is aptly named Whirlwind. It is a must read for anyone trying to grasp the complexities of the middle east and avoid foolish or thoughtless actions.
Some might prefer the Star Trek: Reap the Whirlwind, This tease suggests it may take a different path to the same understanding,
I cannot attest to it's quality as it is a trek I have not taken.
The shit has hit the fan. The killing of the Iranian general is now war one way or another.
The cretin has stepped in it. We always knew he would.