Speaking to reporters on Friday, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick
Shanahan says that the US focus right now, which he, John Bolton, and
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo all share, is to build a global consensus against Iran in the wake of the tanker bombings.
US officials are uniformly convinced that Iran did it, and they want
everyone else to be convinced to. Shanahan said in particular he wants
more “international support for this international situation.”
That’s not going to be so easy, as all the US has offered is a claim of
Iranian guilt and a very grainy black and white video in which nothing
much happens. Britain is on board, as would be expected of anything the US says, but beyond that there aren’t a lot of nations buying in.
Other nations are mostly not looking to endorse or disavow the allegations, seeing little value in getting dragged into it. China, and the European Union both took what seems to be the common reaction, urging calm, and warning against escalating into a war over the matter.
Since Bolton and Pompeo have long tried to make Iran in general
something worth escalating into a war over, the push for “global
consensus” implies a global call to action that the US would be able to
use as an imprimatur for military intervention. That’s clearly been a
top priority for some officials, although President Trump has insisted
he doesn’t want that.
If that is the goal of the post-attack efforts, however, it seems like
the administration still faces an uphill battle, as a US-Iran War would
not benefit much of anyone, and the rest of the world is very weary,
after the last two decades, of rubber stamping any major American wars
in the Middle East.
Since Trump is a Washington outsider and clearly has handed his foreign policy to Señor Mustache, other countries, will not fall in line so easily. So says Mr. Stewart.
Having a reverse effect … exposing Trump and his warmongering minions as the liars that they are. The international”consensus” is that the US is a nation of lying , bloodthirsty warmongers.
I just get the feeling that, at the end of the day, the Trump – Bolton – Pompeo Axis of Stupidity will be frustrated and impotent as usual. It’s not like The Empire can afford to put a shotgun to their own nuts and splatter the Petro – Dollar all over the wall.
¯_(ツ)_/¯
YMMV
In US government-speak, ‘building a consensus’ translates to ‘buy or browbeat you until you do what we want- and if you don’t do what we want just ask the Iraqis and Afghans and Libyans how that worked out for them’.
A little like rape is not having sex with someone, bombing or attacking and invading is not going to war with someone, it is a vicious criminal assault against God and humanity. Only if there is no other way to defend ourselves can “going to war” ever be justified
The United States can not build any more consensus . They have been found wrong just to many times . No one believes them on much of anything .
Trying to build a consensus before a forensic examination is started is futile to a reasonable person.
“Build global consensus”=America’s Coalition of the Killing–the Sequel.
History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce.