Liberals said the same type of shit about Trump being under Putin’s thumb. I don’t know what it is about people being unable to face up to the fact that the US knowingly and consciously orchestrates this kind of stuff and doesn’t need urging from outside to do it. Trump is also clearly a person who acts more on impulse than long-term planning, so it makes sense that he’d jump into a war the US is not fully ready for, but which its mainstream institutions are nevertheless ready to rally behind because they’ve been salivating about Iran for decades.

What the US admin so far attempted to do fits with how they approached Venezuela: attempt a smash of leadership that gains some kind of capitulation and which can be paraded around as a victory for empire (and for Trump specifically). Now instead they have a war on their hands with a people who had time and tech to prepare.

Trump’s mob boss style “intimidation” tactic fell on its face when he tried to tariff China and now it appears (so far) to be falling on its face when attempting to intimidate Iran militarily. He’s an old dog with one trick and he doesn’t appear to learn very well from when it doesn’t work. Probably because it got him so far in life up to this point, so why should he.