In another instance of the Trump regime's fire, aim, ready approach to foreign relations, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo yesterday accused Iran of attacking two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, without any evidence provided. One of the ships, the Kokuka Courageous, is Japanese- owned, which would make it a highly suspicious target, given the fact that Japanese Prime Minister Abe was visiting Iran in an effort to calm tensions. The owner of that tanker is also disputing Pompeo's accounts of the attack.
As with previous, curious attempts to damage ships in the Persian Gulf region a month ago, the Trump regime and its execrable Saudi and UAE allies are rushing to pin blame for the attacks on Iran, though it would seem Iran would have most to lose by having the lanes to its oil fields become a war zone. Who has most to gain from Iran getting the blame? See execrable regimes above.
We're no fans of the Iranian regime, but we've learned that inveterate liars like the Trumpers and Mohammad bin "Bone Saw" Salman are to be trusted even less. This smells like a set up.
Infidel 753 writes,
There is a lesson from the Gulf of Tonkin incident and from all the other lies and deceptions fed to the public during that war. It's the same lesson offered by the official hysterics and falsified evidence which were used to whip up support for the invasion of Iraq in 2003. That lesson is: when it comes to leading this country into war, the establishment lies. [snip]
The Iranian theocracy is evil, but it is not stupid. It defies sanity to believe that Iran (which has not attacked another country in almost 200 years) would carry out shipping attacks calculated to provoke a war with the mighty United States right at the very moment when the Trump administration could direly use a pyrotechnic overseas distraction from its domestic woes with investigations, failed trade wars, flaccid poll numbers, and a wall which even the Trumpanzees are starting to realize will never get built.Infidel notes a "wag the dog" element is also at play here, as it always seems to be with the chaotic, incompetent Trump regime desperate to keep attention off its latest debacle.
We shouldn't swallow it and, most importantly, neither should the media.
BONUS: Adam Silverman at Balloon Juice takes a look at some of the oddities, including the immediate certainty of the Trumpists and the curious ineffectiveness of the attack.
