As the 2020 Election season approaches, President Donald Trump is the one marching the United States toward war with Iran, and he escalated the situation on Tuesday morning by blaming Iran after protesters breached the gates of the U.S. embassy in Iraq.
Back in 2011, Trump predicted that former President Barack Obama would start a war with Iran so he could get re-elected in 2012.
In order to get elected, @BarackObama will start a war with Iran.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2011
It’s a tweet that has not aged well, because, on Tuesday, Trump lashed out at Iran after Iran-backed militia members supported by Iraqi security forces stormed the gates of the U.S. embassy in protest of an airstrike that killed 25 of their fighters, which was a retaliation for the killing of an American contractor.
Despite no evidence that Iran had direct involvement in the U.S. embassy breach, which is particularly embarrassing to Trump, Trump fired off a tweet directly accusing the country of killing the contractor and “orchestrating” the attack on the embassy.
Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many. We strongly responded, and always will. Now Iran is orchestrating an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. They will be held fully responsible. In addition, we expect Iraq to use its forces to protect the Embassy, and so notified!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2019
The series of events has placed further strain on U.S.-Iraqi relations at a time when we need Iraq to act as a balance to Iran, which has only been taking advantage of the power vacuum in the Middle East.
Trump has been desperately looking for a reason to take America to war with Iran, escalating tensions from the time he took office in 2017, even withdrawing the United States from the nuclear deal that had been working to prevent the Iranians from obtaining nuclear weapons. Tensions have continued escalating ever since as Trump slaps sanctions on the Iranians and lashes out at the Iranian government all while making threats on Twitter.
And as Trump’s re-election chances continue to weaken across the country, the chances of him launching a war with Iran in a desperate effort to win in 2020 are rising.
This breach is just the latest Trump foreign policy failure in the Middle East, which also includes ISIS making a comeback in the region despite his declaration that the terrorist organization had been defeated. One wonders if Republicans will demand Trump testify for 11 hours in Congress over the latest embassy attack just as they demanded former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testify over Benghazi.
Featured Image: YouTube screenshot
