Despite assuring voters about his vision rooted in foreign policy restraint, Donald Trump has spent the last year launching military strikes in Venezuela, Yemen, Syria, Nigeria and Somalia, as well as dozens of attacks against civilian boats in international waters.
And then, of course, there’s Iran.
Last summer, the American president also launched preemptive military strikes on targets in Iran, and according to the White House, the operation “totally obliterated” Tehran’s unclear program.
Eight months later, there are ongoing talks between U.S. and Iranian officials about the future of Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, though Trump’s Plan B isn’t exactly subtle. NBC News reported late last week:
The USS Ford Carrier Strike Group has been notified that they are leaving the Caribbean and headed to the Middle East, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the decision.
The Ford will join the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier group already in the region. The decision comes as tensions with Iran remain high.
Note, the ships were headed to Europe last fall before Trump redirected them ahead of the operation in Venezuela, only to redirect them again to the Middle East ahead of a possible new offensive in Iran, which would risk touching off a new crisis in the region.
To date, there’s been no robust public conversation in the United States about a looming U.S. military confrontation with Iran, and it’s likely that many Americans aren’t fully aware of why this is happening.
Indeed, Trump, who had Iran’s nuclear program stifled before abandoning an effective international program in his first term, was asked a question on Friday that I’ve been eager to hear him answer.
“You said … that the Iranian nuclear sites have been totally obliterated,” a reporter reminded the president. “What’s left to go after?”
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Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
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