Drums of war

[airiefairie]

If there is one certain thing about president Trump, it is that in his foreign policy he has been entirely consistent with his temperament and his election promises. He always acts the same way, even if it is the stupidest and most inexplicable way. From Europe to China to North Korea and Iran, his tactic is the same: exert maximum pressure while claiming to be open for negotiation - provided that the other side plays by your rules. The current escalation with Iran is no exception from this gambling approach. The risk of course is that any misstep from either side could bring a real clash of unprecedented proportions. But with great risk comes great reward as they say, or at least that seems to be the driving motivation behind Trump's actions at the international stage.

Things went from bad to worse with Iran, after Trump decided to bring the Iranian oil exports to zero, and reinforce the US military presence in the Gulf because of, in his own words, "indications for imminent Iranian threat". Last year he scrapped the nuclear deal, and amped up sanctions against countries dealing with Iran. He brought back all restrictions on Iran, even though Iran was honouring the deal at the time, aiming to suffocate the Iranian oil exports and force them to accept his new conditions. And now we see the military presence in the Gulf reaching levels that make it all look like a war is coming up.

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