Why exactly did the United States attack Iran? It’s a question that members of the Trump administration have been asked hundreds of times since the war began, yet the White House always seems to offer up a different justification for the military action, which is now entering its fourth week.
So it should be no surprise that those who support Donald Trump and his foolhardy Iran war also have trouble explaining the reasons American servicemembers are putting their lives on the line for an objective that no one can seem to explain.
Such was the case this morning on CNN.
“Table For Five” featured conservative writers and commentators Noah Rothman and Brianna Lyman, both of whom vocally support Trump’s decision to launch an attack on Iran, with Lyman placing blame for the conflict on Iran, claiming that “we started a war because Iran started a war 47 years ago,” and that Trump was “finishing a war.”
The 47-year figure is a common talking point for those on the political right and references the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which the United States was opposed to because the new Iranian government nationalized the country’s oil and gas industry.
Rothman, a writer for the National Review, defended the Trump administration’s war against Iran by saying that Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities were a clear and present danger to the United States.
Adam Mockler, also a contributor for the progressive media company MeidasTouch, mocked the two conservatives and their blatant “contradictions.”
“The contradictions here are endless,” he told them.
“So in one breath, this is a 47-year war, in the next breath, there was an imminent threat coming from Iran, and then in the next breath, ‘oh, we were just trying to defang their nuclear capabilities,’ and then one person will say we did defang the Iranian regime! Then Trump is now mobilizing thousands of more troops, so obviously this is going to continue.”
The US agreed to attack Iran because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convinced Trump to go along with a foolhardy plan that threatens the long-term peace and security of the Middle East, the United States, and the world.
Trump was tricked into attacking Iran, and now he has no exit plan. That alone should terrify everyone.
