The People Around Trump Are Totally Unqualified to Stop the Iran CrisisIt's not clear they even want

[applegrove]

The People Around Trump Are Totally Unqualified to Stop the Iran CrisisIt’s not clear they even want to.

By FRED KAPLAN at Slate

JAN 06, 20204:52 PM

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/01/trump-team-iran-crisis-pompeo-esper.html

"SNIP......

There might still be a peaceful way out of the crisis with Iran—the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, and the United Nations, as well as such quite hawkish prominent Americans as retired Gen. David Petraeus and former Middle East envoy Dennis Ross, are urging diplomatic overtures from both sides—but President Donald Trump isn’t likely to go that route for two reasons. First, he isn’t keen on diplomacy. Second, even if he suddenly were, no one around him is very fit for the task.

Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have no desire to de-escalate the crisis, nor would anyone in Tehran trust them as emissaries, given their overt advocacy of Iranian regime change. Other senior officials lack the experience for this sort of thing. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper comes to the job as a former aerospace lobbyist, not as a policy denizen. National security adviser Robert O’Brien is a former hostage negotiator (though that could be a useful credential if this crisis escalates much further).

There are a few midlevel specialists who could play a role in either formulating or executing a diplomatic approach. Most notable is James Jeffrey, special envoy on engaging Syria and fighting ISIS; though Trump has diminished U.S. leverage on both issues, Jeffrey has also been deputy national security adviser as well as ambassador to Iraq and Turkey, in the Bush and Obama administrations. He is widely viewed as hawkish but pragmatic, and he knows the region.

What would a diplomatic solution look like? First, and perhaps above all, it would involve a reembracing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran nuclear deal, including a gradual lifting of economic sanctions, perhaps in exchange for Iran’s cessation of attacks on U.S. targets in the region.

......SNIP"

[BigmanPigman]

1. Pence and Pompeo encouraged tRump to do this so of

course they will not try to de-escalate it. They are in hot water with impeachment too so they want to save their own asses, not just the fucking morons flabby, flat ass.

[sprinkleeninow]

2. Kinda like it's said.

Can't put their toothpaste back into the tube.

Plus these workers of iniquity want this.