Trump is an out and out fruit loop trying to force Iran into a position where they give away their ability to defend themselves!

Not that they, the Iranian regime are squeaky clean and have no innocent blood on their hands! But rather a nation that sponsors terror and terrorist attacks, imprisons the innocent without just cause and acts exactly like the servants of Satan would!?

Hiding behind a veil of bogus religious conviction as they weave their wickedness/human rights abuses!? And somehow trying to justify it with the unjustifiable!?

A patently corrupt and land stealing Netanyahu assists with his own version of sabre-rattling BS!

This will not end well but possibly in a huge mushroom-shaped cloud over Tehran?
Alan B.

Followed by a huge non-mushroom shapedcloud over Jerusalem.
David

Threatening to unleash the nuclear option on Iran, but never doing it or even hitting it where it hurt with a few cruise missiles, is a mistake!

If you say there will be consequences for certain outcomes and those consequences are just left there sitting on the table! Nothing of any enduring consequence is resolved!

President Trump has proved to be a weak, undecisive vacillator, as a negotiator!

Who thinks all he need do is thunder and roar about his military might, even as that military might is eroded and made into a former shadow of itself as its (Manning + co.) personal are scrapped from the very bottom of the socio-economic barrel and dregs of society!?

And join out of economic necessity, or the compulsion of a hidden agenda, not the patriotism that flashed instantly into being with the cowardly attack on Pearl harbour or the twin towers!
Alan B.

The world of today needs to see some mushroom-shaped clouds somewhere before these weapons have to be disassembled and their nuclear warheads burned in MSR to both generate cheap clean power and reduce these materials to the status of non-fissionable! Before the world decides that these unthinkable weapons of mass destruction have to be destroyed!

If the trigger is never ever pulled? The gun protects nobody!

And if pulling the trigger is unthinkable!?

Why own a gun or any other weapon! Let alone enough nuclear weapons to destroy the entire world three or four times over, when some nut job thinks that a preemptive strike won't also rain down on him or her!

Better they be disassembled and all the weapons-grade plutonium be burned creating cheap reliable dispatch power for the next dozen or so centuries and with that sanity, allow the world to progressively decarbonise as we turn our deserts into veritable gardens of Eden!

That's the promise and possibility of the application of sanity in this space!
Alan B.

There will be no war, it's just rhetoric, a part of negotiation.

Alan you must remember that they believe even if they are nuked
out of existence they win !
It means that they are victorious and are instantly in Paradise.

That is why MAD has no meaning to them.

Bazz. Exactly! And completely agree!

We need these things gone and the material [and the current world's stockpile of nuclear waste], used in them, burned up for peaceful purpose power, in MSR thorium.
#1/To eliminate them from all our military arsenals and reduce the half-life to just 300 years!
#2/ And then produce a new material that is far less toxic and eminently suitable as long-life space batteries That stabilise in around a decade and burn up with reentry!
Cheers, Alan B.

The silly thing is that neither the US, Iran or the UN controls the
Strait of Hormuz, it is all under the control of the Insurance Companies.

Already they have a risk charge on premiums, and they can just close it
with an email.

Interesting observation, Bazz! And demonstrates beyond question why we must end forever our absolutely asinine dependence on foreign oil!

We need to accept and embrace nuclear power, because we can use this CARBON FREE power to power the nation and most if not all, our transport options, with the safest, cleanest, most affordable energy on earth, and get our ow carbon emission down by a much as 90%?

All while massively turbocharging the economy, wealth and job creation opportunities!

As for coal? Well, a fully resuscitated steel industry on steroids, thanks to the world's cheapest energy, MSR thorium, will ensure we mine as much coal as now, if not more, just that it'll be metallurgical rather than thermal.

Moreover, the energy sales that keep our economy barely afloat could be transmitted directly via undersea cables with the world's strongest material, superconductor, graphene! And in that way, remove the carbon footprint of that transfer and all of the shipping costs and much of the risks, which are not unsubstantial!

Yes, I know it'll cost billions for all of the above! And we can earn all those billions by becoming a safe repository for the world's nuclear waste stockpile! And once we have those agreements, signed sealed and ratified!? Use that material as a huge free fuel resource in MSR! And basically create an energy paradigm that's absolutely safe, virtually free and will serve us for centuries!

It's the current cost of energy that's the real roadblock on jobs and wealth creation here in Oz! Making it more affordable is the key to quite massive economic recovery and economic opportunity, the other is genuine tax reform! Which I've laid out, chapter and verse in former comment!
Alan B.

We could just harvest our own oil.

We have heaps of the stuff in central Oz, just requires fracking, & we can have all we want, without being ripped off by Asian refineries, or subject to interdiction of the tankers we depend on.

There are a lot of stages between doing nothing and total war. Punitive strikes against symbolic targets such as their navy or airforce could send an adequate message, as did the strikes against Libya initiated by Reagan in the 80s.

How much of Iran's belligerence is inherited from their old Persian
Empire memory.
After all the whole Middle East was part of the Persian Empire.

The author's article eg. "Trump is determined not to initiate any hostility against Tehran." is now OUT OF DATE.

Australia's ABC News reported in the last hour http://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-16/trump-says-us-is-locked-and-loaded-to-protect-saudi-arabia/11516490 that

Trump says his country is "locked and loaded" to respond to [Saturday 14 September 2019's drone] attacks which inflicted serious damage on Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure...

Key points:

- Drones attacked Saudi oil plants on Saturday [14 September 2019], starting huge fires and slashing production by half

- Yemen's Tehran-backed Houthi rebels claimed responsibility, but the US blames Iran

- Asian oil prices rose by 10 per cent on Monday

It is the first time the President has hinted at a potential American military response to the drone attacks, which slashed Saudi oil production by half and led both the kingdom and the United States to announce they may tap their strategic reserves.

"There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!" Mr Trump tweeted.

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is bogged down in a five-year war, claimed responsibility for Saturday's strikes, which targeted two plants owned by state energy giant Aramco.

But US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pointed the finger squarely at Tehran, saying there was no evidence the "unprecedented attack on the world's energy supply" was launched from Yemen...."

Hasbeen, fracking in Central Australia might be possible but ---
Isn't there always a but ?
The fracking Cos in US are not making money.
There was a proposal for near Coober Peady but it was not economic.

Hey plantagenet,

Trump Backs Down, Walks Back "Locked & Loaded" After Iran Narrative Crumbles & Pompeo Should Go Next
http://youtu.be/pkvbSLjSAhM

There is some indication that the drones came in from the north.
There appears to be some Iranian forces in Southern Iraq.
It was suggested that they launched the drones.
Iran has rockets that could destroy Saudi oil industry totally.
They used a lighter attack deliberately to make the point.