White Beard Wisdom

WSJ June 21, 2019: Iran Calls Trump’s Bluff

Length: 512 Words     Reading Time: 2 Minutes

The Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal wrote a longish opinion piece on June 21, 2019, that took President Trump to task for canceling the military action against Iran at the last minute. They took the President to the woodshed because he stopped the mission when he learned that 150 people would be killed.

I am always surprised at armchair experts who pontificate on subjects about which they know very little and who second guess when they were not there at the first guess. It is so easy to second guess this president or any president on his decision to act or not act. I would submit that the individuals on the WSJ Editorial Board would wet their pants or run from the room when faced with a life-or-death military decision of any kind.

Let me highlight five points based on my military experience, my reading of history, and my almost 25 years living and working in Saudi Arabia.

I do not believe that Iran called anyone’s bluff because President Trump was not bluffing, but he understood the consequences of his decision. Sadly, Mr. Trump has very few advisors, if any, who understand the Middle East and the minds of the Arabs and the Iranians. The Iranians have no grand strategy, and they certainly do not understand America and President Trump. In my opinion, the Iranians are making ad hoc decisions, just as we are.

Any professional military man would be remiss if he did not present to the decision-maker the consequences of the actions and the risks involved in laying out various military options. So, these generals who presented these options to President Trump initially should have included these essential details. They did a disservice to the President by not doing so.

I do not believe that previous presidents, such as Wilson, Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, or Nixon, approved or disapproved a military mission or action based on the number of civilians who would be killed. They probably never asked that question, and I suspect the answer would not have been forthcoming if they had.

President Trump made the right decision is calling off the mission because of his judgment that it was disproportionate to the shooting down of the unmanned drone regardless of its cost. It matters not when it was done, only that it was done.

Moreover, the great game that is playing out in the Arabian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz has been going on for years, starting with the Iran/ Iraq War, down through Gulf War I and Gulf War II to the present day. There are tactical issues here as well as strategic. President Trump is being prudent and wise in his deliberations. If he can be faulted at all, it is in not pressuring the CIA, the State Department, and the Department of Defense to set forth and articulate the various scenarios that could play out in this troublesome region. These are international waters, and Iran’s actions affect the national interests of many countries in the area, as well as Europe and Asia.

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