Will More United States Troops in Saudi Arabia Make America Great? by Ron Paul
(2019-09-28 at 13:32:41 )

Will More United States Troops in Saudi Arabia Make America Great? by Ron Paul

President Trump deserves credit for resisting the war cries from neocons like Sen. Lindsey Graham and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after last weeks attack on two Saudi oil facilities. Mr. Pompeo was eager to blame Iran because he wants war with Iran and anything that can trigger such a war is fine with him. So he put the president in a difficult spot by declaring Iran the culprit: suddenly the presidents options in the media and in Washington,D.C. were limited to "how to punish Iran."

A week has now passed since the attack and Mr. Pompeos rush to judgement has been shown for what it was: war propaganda. That is because there has still been no determination of who launched the attack. Yemens Houthis took responsibility right away and Iran denied any involvement. We have seen nothing to this point that contradicts this.

President Trump likely understands that a United States war on Iran will be his undoing as president. Who knows, maybe that is what his closest advisors want.

But according to a Gallup poll just last month, only 18 percent of United States of Americans were in favor of military action against Iran.

Seventy-eight percent of Americans - including 72 percent of Republicans - want the president to pursue diplomatic efforts over war.

Iran has made clear that any attack on its territory will trigger a total war. The Middle East would be engulfed in flames and the United States economy would be in the tank.

Suddenly we would see Democrat challengers pretending to be antiwar!

The message to President Trump is pretty clear - war with Iran would be deeply unpopular - and it seems clear he understands the message.

Just hours after his Secretary of State put the United States on war footing with Iran, President Trump was forced to walk back Mr. Pompeos aggression.

When asked about going to war with Iran, President Trump said, "Do I want war? I do not want war with anybody."

Unfortunately, with pressure on President Trump to "do something" even as Iran has not been found to have been behind the attack, the president has settled on two measures - one pointless and the other dangerous.

On Friday President Trump announced yet even more sanctions on Iran, leaving many of us to wonder what is possibly left to sanction.

He also announced a deployment of United States military forces to Saudi Arabia of a "defensive nature."

Why should the military be sent to "defend" one of the wealthiest and most repressive countries on earth?

It is hard to see how putting United States service members into harms way - into a war zone - to defend Saudi Arabia can in any way make the United States of America great again.

I believe most Americans would agree.

President Trump should immediately cancel the order to send US troops to Saudi Arabia and should immediately remove what troops are already on Saudi soil. Then the Saudis would understand that they must end their aggression against Yemen.

Attempting to placate the neocons is a fool’s errand, because they are never satisfied even up to and including war. The tide is turning in America – and even in Washington – against Saudi Arabia. After the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and a catastrophic four-year Saudi war on Yemen, no American politician is any longer in the mood to stick his or her neck out to defend Saudi Arabia. President Trump would be wise to use caution: it’s always dangerous sticking one’s neck out when the Saudi government is around.

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