While countries like Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel have been wanting the US military to attack their nemesis Iran, for years, the two countries of China and Russia have been strongly opposed to any such action.
See: Iran Says US Drone Was Downed Over Iranian Territory Versus International Waters
Within the White House, the (NSA) National Security Adviser John Bolton, the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the CIA Director Gina Haspel were all in favor of this US military operation to strike at specific sites within Iran. Both Mr. Bolton and Mr. Pompeo are well known for being Iran hawks.
But Russia and Iran have been allies for years. By now, most of us have come to accept the fact that Russia has an out-sized influence over President Trump. On the 20th of June, the Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the US president that a war between US and Iran would be “catastrophe” via a Hill news report.
It’s my theory is that President Trump was looking for any excuse not to follow through with an US military operation against Iran and he came up with the below described excuse which frankly, is suspect.
The HillVerified account @thehill tweeted the following on 6/20/2019:
Here is the rest of the story…
On June 21, 2019, Toluse Olorunnipa, Josh Dawsey, Karoun Demirjian and Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post penned the following report, “I stopped it’: Inside Trump’s last-minute reversal on striking Iran”
“What are the potential risks, he asked. How many people could be killed? What could go wrong?””Trump had already been briefed in detail on such questions earlier in the day, including a Pentagon estimate of up to 150 Iranian casualties. But — with national security adviser John Bolton joining the debate arguing strenuously in favor of the strikes — the president was asking about them again.”“By the time the meeting was over, Trump had given the order to stand down.”
“We were cocked & loaded to retaliate last night on 3 different sights when I asked, how many will die,” Trump wrote Friday on Twitter, embellishing several of the events in question. “150 people, sir, was the answer from a General. 10 minutes before the strike I stopped it.”
“Trump’s reversal was the culmination of 24 frenzied and frenetic hours marked by public inconsistencies, congressional bewilderment and palpable concern among national security experts that the administration might inadvertently stumble into the kind of bloody Middle East conflict that the president had campaigned so vigorously against.”
“This account of how Trump approved and then abruptly canceled a military operation against Iran is based on interviews with more than 25 White House officials, lawmakers, congressional aides, military officials and others familiar with the process. Most spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.”
“Just hours before the Oval Office meeting, the military had begun to mobilize around the mission of exacting a price from the regime that had shot one of its unmanned assets out of the air. The downing of the drone — which the United States says was flying in international airspace and Iran says had breached Iranian territory — was the latest in a series of events that have heightened tensions between the two nations.”
“The administration had already announced plans to move hundreds of troops into the region and had accused Iran of attacking tankers and taking other aggressive actions.”
“The administration’s debate over how to respond to the drone attack played out over the course of four meetings at the White House on Thursday beginning at 7 a.m. Trump was supportive of military action throughout the day as Pentagon officials, lawmakers and national security officials made their cases for or against escalation, making his sudden change of mind all the more striking to those inside the administration.”
“The president is full of surprises,” said one senior administration official, describing the day.”
“After the US had confirmed the loss of the drone, Bolton convened a group of top officials to discuss a potential response over breakfast, officials said.”
“There was no need to determine whether Iran was behind the action: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had quickly claimed responsibility for shooting down the Navy RQ-4 Global Hawk.”
“Trump’s initial public response was a tweet at 10:15 a.m. declaring that “Iran made a very big mistake!”
“Later in the morning, Trump gave the green light for the Pentagon to prepare for strikes, after he was informed it would take military officials several hours to get everything in place. He had been briefed about casualties and other risks before giving the approval, officials said.”
“During an 11 a.m. meeting, attended by outgoing acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan, incoming acting defense secretary Mark T. Esper and other top military brass, administration officials reviewed several different options for how to respond.”
“A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions, said that the Pentagon had Navy assets poised to strike in Iran if directed, including ships accompanying the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. Those attacks could have included airstrikes by jets or — more likely — Tomahawk missiles, the official said.”
“Among the ships that could have been involved were the guided-missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf and the destroyer USS Bainbridge, the official said. Both vessels can carry Tomahawk missiles.”
“Throughout the day of harried White House deliberations, congressional leaders of both parties were given only a cursory understanding of what Trump was considering.”
“Around 11 a.m., lawmakers on Capitol Hill were being briefed by intelligence officials about the Iranian threat, a meeting that was scheduled before the drone shooting. It quickly morphed into a briefing aimed at getting lawmakers and their staffers up to date on the overnight events, congressional aides said.”
“During the briefing, congressional staffers received word that the White House had called a 3 p.m. meeting, just for senior leaders, focused on Iran. The timing set off alarm bells: Lawmakers were anticipating something serious, and soon, according to aides for several members who attended both briefings.”
“Trump added to the confusion during public comments as he met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He at once suggested that Iran should be held accountable for what occurred and also appeared to minimize the significance of the incident because the aircraft was unmanned and its downing had not led to U.S. casualties. He said he believed it to be a mistake by a lower-level Iranian official.”
Link to article:I stopped it’: Inside Trump’s last-minute reversal on striking Iran
Gronda Morin 
Hello Gronda. Several things jump out at me. The US is trying to force a confrontation with Iran and we are deliberately engaged in making the life of Iranians harder every day. If another country did these actions to the US the rage would be off the charts. The interesting thing is that there was another spy plane with about 37 crew people on board in the same area. Why two spy planes for that one area? Why use one of the biggest drones we have instead of a smaller harder to hit drone. Why not a satellite? tRump kept mentioning the drone was not manned. It seems to me that someone on his staff sent those planes up there in that area hoping that one or both would be targeted. I doubt tRump even knew about them until after the drone was shot down. The fractions on his staff and cabinet that want war are willing to rig the whole thing to get it. The other question I have is what each fraction gets out of a war with Iran. It seems they do not all have the same reason for wanting it. The last thing is that the rest of the world simple doesn’t believe us. If we take action we will only have Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE on our side. We won’t have support like we did during the other wars we got into over there. Iran has strong allies also. China for one and even Russia. This is a disaster in the making and I can not figure out why our government is pushing it. Hugs
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Dear Scottie,
Right now our US government is impotent. The US House has been passing some great bills in the US House which are all DOA in the Republican majority run US Senate but at least they’re signaling what Dem priorities are to voters.
I wish they’d do likewise with an -I-inquiry. They would get so much more media attn for their hard work if Speaker Pelosi pushed for the start of an I-inquiry no later than end of Sept. 2019. The Constitutional legal status of an I-inquiry would make it much easier for Hose Ways and Means Committee members to access Trump’s IRS tax records and other financial data.
The House has to have a plan to make sure I-inquiry is successful. House should call those who worked w Mr. Mueller to compile report to testify. They should get forensic accountants who would review his financial docs to testify.
It’s frustrating to watch the Dems in the US House to flounder.
Hugs, Gronda
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