We’re back for episode 80. And we could be gearing up for war with Iran. I don’t want one; Storm feels otherwise. Still, the Trump White House has a plan to potentially deploy some 120,000 troops in the region, as Tehran flexes its muscles in the region. American forces in the region were warned that they could be targets for acts of terrorism. In the United Arab Emirates, terrorists attacked four ships. The increased tension has caused Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to make unannounced stops in Brussels and Iraq to assess the situation. It’s potentially perilous.
The New York Times has more:
At a meeting of President Trump’s top national security aides last Thursday, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan presented an updated military plan that envisions sending as many as 120,000 troops to the Middle East should Iran attack American forces or accelerate work on nuclear weapons, administration officials said.
The revisions were ordered by hard-liners led by John R. Bolton, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser. They do not call for a land invasion of Iran, which would require vastly more troops, officials said.
The development reflects the influence of Mr. Bolton, one of the administration’s most virulent Iran hawks, whose push for confrontation with Tehran was ignored more than a decade ago by President George W. Bush.
[…]
There are sharp divisions in the administration over how to respond to Iran at a time when tensions are rising about Iran’s nuclear policy and its intentions in the Middle East.
Some senior American officials said the plans, even at a very preliminary stage, show how dangerous the threat from Iran has become. Others, who are urging a diplomatic resolution to the current tensions, said it amounts to a scare tactic to warn Iran against new aggressions.
[…]
The size of the force involved has shocked some who have been briefed on them. The 120,000 troops would approach the size of the American force that invaded Iraq in 2003.
Deploying such a robust air, land and naval force would give Tehran more targets to strike, and potentially more reason to do so, risking entangling the United States in a drawn out conflict. It also would reverse years of retrenching by the American military in the Middle East that began with President Barack Obama’s withdrawal of troops from Iraq in 2011.
But two of the American national security officials said Mr. Trump’s announced drawdown in December of American forces in Syria, and the diminished naval presence in the region, appear to have emboldened some leaders in Tehran and convinced the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps that the United States has no appetite for a fight with Iran.
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On the Hill, let’s face it: the Democratic Party is now the party of anti-Semitism. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) stepped in it again with these remarks about the Holocaust:
There’s always kind of a calming feeling, I tell folks, when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors — Palestinians — who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways, have been wiped out, and some people's passports," Tlaib said on the podcast's most recent episode, published Friday. "And, just all of it was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-the Holocaust, post-the tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time. And, I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that, right, in many ways, but they did it in a way that took their human dignity away and it was forced on them."
Republicans’ desperate attempts to smear @RepRashida & misrepresent her comments are outrageous. President @realDonaldTrump & House GOP should apologize to Rep. Tlaib & the American people for their gross misrepresentations.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) May 13, 2019
If you read Rep. @RashidaTlaib’s comments, it is clear that President Trump and Congressional Republicans are taking them out of context. They must stop, and they owe her an apology.
— Steny Hoyer (@LeaderHoyer) May 13, 2019
Rep. @RashidaTlaib Wrote For @LouisFarrakhan's Publication In 2006https://t.co/WEZsw5k8bn by @JerylBier
— Matt Wolking (@MattWolking) May 13, 2019
The part she leaves out: Palestinian leaders sided with the Nazis during World War II. Tlaib’s remarks come after her partner in crime, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) accused those who supported Israel of exhibiting dual loyalty. Omar has a long history of peddling anti-Semitic trash. And now, Democratic leaders have responded by circling the wagons around Tlaib.
On the Russian collusion myth, Attorney General William Barr is now investigating the investigators, picking U.S. Attorney John Durham of Connecticut to look into the origins of this whole witch-hunt.
To wrap things up, Sen. Rubio (R-FL) wants to investigate whether John Kerry committed a Logan Act violation or breached the Foreign Agents Registration Act concerning his alleged past actions with regards to the Iran nuclear deal. Storm isn’t happy with Justice Kavanaugh over the recent Apple decision in the Supreme Court. Trump held a rally where he torched the 2020 Democratic field. And former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein ripped James Comey as a partisan who's just trying to sell books.
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