Trump says war with Iran wouldn't last very long. He hasn't read enough history.

[Zorro]

Sometimes in foreign policy, the best course of action for a powerful country is the most limited, at least visibly. That may be the case now in the United States’ confrontation with a cornered but potentially venomous Iran.

The U.S.-Iran showdown is a classic test between a strong nation and a much weaker one. An embattled Tehran has seemingly tried to goad the United States, shooting down a U.S. spy drone, allegedly mining ships near the Persian Gulf and allowing proxies to fire missiles at civilian airports in Saudi Arabia. President Trump hasn’t retaliated militarily, but his loose talk Tuesday of the “obliteration” of Iran keeps the pot boiling, as Tehran probably wants.

Trump should keep the lid on, but this week demonstrated how difficult that will be. On Wednesday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, again spurned Trump’s call for diplomacy. “Negotiation is an effort to deceive [Iran] into doing what the U.S. desires,” he said. Its defiance moved into a higher gear Thursday when, by its own account, Iran said it would break the cap on uranium enrichment set by the 2015 nuclear agreement.

History teaches us that ruinous wars often begin when powerful nations misjudge weaker ones or think that they can determine political outcomes by force. That’s the obvious lesson of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the United States assumed it could gain quick, decisive victories against weaker adversaries. Modern British historians make a similar assessment of World War I, where combatants rushed to war in the expectation of rapid triumph, oblivious to the horrors of trench warfare that lay ahead.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/trump-says-war-with-iran-wouldnt-last-very-long-he-hasnt-read-enough-history/2019/06/27/2b2835dc-9920-11e9-830a-21b9b36b64ad_story.html

[Downtown Hound]

1. They said that about Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, and Korea too. n/t

[ProudMNDemocrat]

2. Trump WILL underestimate Iran at his own peril.....

And the war that ensues will surely be his fault.

Can't blame Hillary or Obama for this rash decision.

[LastDemocratInSC]

3. The first casualties of war are the plans and expectations made about it.

[dawg day]

4. I remember Bush said something like that... he was just off by a decade or so with Iraq

And coming on 2 decades with Afghanistan.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. The South said that about the Civil War.

England and Germany said the same thing about the First World War.

Kenneth Adelman (WaPo columnist) wrote a pair of editorial columns regarding the Iraq War in the Washington Post in February 2002 and April 2003 entitled, respectively, "Cakewalk In Iraq" and "'Cakewalk' Revisited". In the first he argued that the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq would be a simple matter to accomplish.

Get worried whenever a leader with military predicts "I'll be home for Christmas . . . . "

[murielm99]

6. And tariff wars are easy to win.

[Wellstone ruled]

7. First off,Iran has a

4 million person standing Army. Second,where in hell do these Political Idiots think Iran is a third world stupid Nation. This country has been under some sort of Sanctions since 1979 and they have been able to develop and maintain a first world Nation via Science and Education.

So if the Trumpers/Neo-Con/Bolton Tribe of Fools,think this is just a Cake Walk,never forget the War Cheney started by convincing Sadamm he could defeat Iran in a Cake Walk. We gave him the Poison Gas and Munitions only to suffer a major defeat.

Again,History proved the point,Iran will remain.

Should add,those TOW Missiles Cheney gave Sadamm in 1980,you knew they were ReEngineeed

[captain queeg]

8. Are we ever successful in these kinds of endeavors?

And what exactly would we be trying to accomplish? You know the shit stain has no idea. Bolton wants regime change. Going in at all is bad enough but without a clearly defined goal it will be guaranteed to be a fiasco at best, a catastrophe much more likely.

[Karadeniz]

9. He missed another opportunity to be quiet.

[Rebl2]

10. Let's see

Where have I heard that before

[Eustace is Useful]

11. Damn

He forgot to mention we'll be greeted as liberators!

[trusty elf]

12. A law should be passed

that would require Kush, I'dbonkher, Uday and Fuquad to be the first to lead the charge.