7/26/2019

FOREIGN POLICY/IRAN/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WAR: “This week President Donald Trump demonstrated one of the most consistent themes of his presidency — speak loudly but carry a very small stick. Talking about Afghanistan in his meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office ‘I could win that war in a week. I just don’t want to kill 10 million people.’ How many times have we heard a variation of ‘tough’ Trump? To name a couple of examples, he vowed to use fire and fury on North Korea, but he didn’t do it. And he has made empty threats of a US military intervention against President Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. But the country that the President seems the most determined to consistently show his tough side to is Iran…But there’s little doubt that Trump — who has shown a degree of risk-aversion when it actually comes to using military force, despite his tough talk — would like to avoid a conflict with Iran if possible. He knows that once one begins it might be very difficult to control, let alone stop.”

Aaron David Miller and Richard Sokolsky, “With Iran, Trump speaks loudly but (fortunately) carries a small stick,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, July 26, 2019 1:01 pm