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Trump Concerned About Loss of Lives in Iran?

Written by Subject: Iran

Trump Concerned About Loss of Lives in Iran?

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

Via Twitter on Friday, Trump said the Pentagon on his order was "cocked & loaded" to strike three Iranian sites in response to the downing of a US spy drone.

Falsely claiming it was in international airspace, he OK'd a strike on three Iranian sites, saying he called it off because he was told it would cause about 150 deaths.

Airstrikes kill and injure countless numbers of combatants and civilians in harm's way.

Trump's record in office shows utter disdain for human lives, rights and welfare. His approved rape and destruction of Mosul, Iraq and Raqqa, Syria alone were responsible for tens of thousands of deaths, countless more injuries.

Since taking office, he escalated war in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya and Somalia, along with waging war by other means on Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua.

Last March, he banned disclosure of civilian deaths by drones, rescinding a DNI rule to produce an annual report of these deaths outside of official war theaters.

According to UK-based Reprieve, drone strikes greatly increased under Trump in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen, adding:

"…America's illegal drone war has expanded (greatly) across the globe, (Trump) increas(ing) and widen(ing) drone strikes…systematically weaken(ing) safeguards."

"(E)ven individuals not considered to pose a 'continuing and imminent threat' can be targeted for death without trial" under a secret assassination program – murder by drones, conventional warplanes, and/or special forces operations.

According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Obama increased terror-bombing by drones in Yemen 10-fold over what Bush/Cheney began.

Trump increased aerial attacks on the country six-fold over 2016 — by drones and warplanes, according to CENTCOM.

Despite Yemenis enduring the world's gravest humanitarian crisis from war, untreated diseases, starvation, and overall deprivation, Trump vetoed a congressional measure to end US involvement in the war.

In response to a Thursday Senate vote to block US arms sales to Saudi Arabia, Trump threatened to veto the measure, falsely claiming it "would send a message that the United States is abandoning its partners and allies at the very moment when threats to them are increasing (sic)."

The only threats faced by the US and its partners are invented. No real ones exist, clearly not from Iran or any other nations on the US target list for regime change.

Further Senate votes are expected on this issue along with action by House members on it.

Trump supports maximum arms sales, largely used for mass slaughter and destruction — showing his contempt for peace, human lives and welfare.

Attacking Iranian targets would likely provoke retaliation against US regional sites, risking escalation to all-out war.

Going this far would devastate the region. It could become the mother of all quagmires with no easy solution.

Yet it's possible, perhaps even likely if regime hawks Bolton and Pompeo in cahoots with the CIA and maybe Israel's Mossad stage a major false flag incident, something much more serious than the Gulf of Oman incident. 

If it involves a US warship,  aircraft, or Pentagon facility resulting in the loss of US lives, Trump could open the gates of hell by waging war on Iran — risking potentially catastrophic consequences.

VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

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