Trump Nixed Calls For Large-Scale Attack On Iranian Proxies, Citing Covid-19
In what appears the first significant US foreign policy alteration due to the coronavirus pandemic, President Trump reportedly nixed plans for a large-scale attack on "Iranian proxies" in Iraq last week amid a tit-for-tat following rocket attacks on a US base there, which killed two Americans.
The Commander-in-Chief specifically cited coronavirus as reason for holding off on such a major attack, which would surely bog American forces down further in an ongoing battle against Iran inside neighboring Iraq, which Washington fears has long come under the control of the Shia clerics in Tehran. More importantly, the president thought it would "look bad" at the moment of a global pandemic.
NBC reports: "President Donald Trump told his top national security advisers last week that because of the coronavirus pandemic he didn't think an aggressive response to new attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq by Iranian-backed militias was the right move, according to one former and four current senior U.S. officials."
He was reportedly being pressed by Iran hawks in the cabinet, of which there are plenty, for a much more muscular attack. Instead US airstrikes on Kataeb Hezbollah locations across southern Iraq on March 12 were limited to to just five militia weapons depots.
Trump rejected the proposals, and stunningly in a rare moment of White House common sense decision-making under pressure, NBC reports:
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trump-nixed-calls-large-scale-attack-iranian-proxies-citing-covid-19