While members of his cabinet are unabashed hawks, President Trump has a more nuanced view.
That may have changed with this morning’s news that a surface-to-air missile fired by Iran destroyed a U.S. Navy drone over the strategically important Strait of Hormuz.
The president fired off a clear warning at the Islamic Regime:
Iran made a very big mistake!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 20, 2019
United States Central Command blasted Iran for the “unprovoked” strike and its “false” justification for it.
The destruction of the Navy’s high-altitude drone comes after an attack on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.
International consensus is that the Iranians were behind those raids, too.
The regime in Tehran claims America orchestrated both incidents to frame Iran.
Fox News further reports:
Similarly, Iran claimed the U.S. drone on Thursday was over Iranian airspace when it was shot down — but American officials stated unequivocally the incident occurred in international airspace.
U.S. Central Command said in a statement that a U.S. Navy Broad Area Maritime Surveillance ISR aircraft, known as a BAMS-D, was shot down at approximately 7:35 p.m. E.T. on Wednesday.
“Iranian reports that the aircraft was over Iran are false,” Capt. Bill Urban, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, said in a statement. “This was an unprovoked attack on a U.S. surveillance asset in international airspace.”
The U.S. Navy’s RQ-4A Global Hawk drone was over international airspace and about 17 miles from Iran at the time, a military source told Fox News. The drone provides real-time intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions “over vast ocean and coastal regions,” according to the military.
Anti-aircraft batteries attempted to shot down another military drone but missed.
Naval assets have been scrambled to find the drone wreckage before the Iranians do.
Hours earlier, Iranian-backed forces fired cruise missiles in Saudi Arabia, hitting a power plant. There is no word on casualties there.
Reaction to the aggression has been met with widespread condemnation:
Rep. Kevin McCarthy: “We will stand very firmly in the actions that this President Trump has taken. We applaud him for actually moving aircraft carriers, moving planes, and now moving individuals to make sure Iran does not get their way.” pic.twitter.com/EJGI2H17bK
— The Hill (@thehill) June 20, 2019
On Iran: @LindseyGrahamSC says he conferred with @POTUS this morning and “he believes that we’re getting into a bad space, that his options are running out.”
Graham says @POTUS won’t be intrimidated by Iran into another bad nuclear deal, nor will he lift sanctions. pic.twitter.com/FlsyajIPtS— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) June 20, 2019
Many liberals are going so far as to singlehandedly blame the president for Iranian aggression:
Remember, we are only on the verge of war w/ #Iran because Trump senselessly chose to withdraw from the #IranDeal and UNRESOLVE a resolved conflict.
The Americans who’ll die in Trump’s war will not die defending America.
They will simply die because Trump hates Obama.#drone
— Trita Parsi (@tparsi) June 20, 2019
Trump tweets “Iran made a very big mistake!” after the downing of a US military drone, escalating a volatile situation playing out between Washington and Tehran https://t.co/EvnDxGeqVr pic.twitter.com/F1mFWb2QFX
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) June 20, 2019
|￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣ |
| TRUMP & |
| POMPEO |
| NEED APPROVAL |
| FOR WAR |
| ＿＿＿＿＿__＿＿ |
(\__/) ||
(•ㅅ•) ||
/ づ #StopEndlessWar https://t.co/CJerMWXE3s— Rep. Barbara Lee (@RepBarbaraLee) June 20, 2019
Iran shooting down a US military drone isn’t remotely surprising:
– US pulled out of the nuclear agreement
– US slapped illegal sanctions on Iran (including on medicine)
– US is forcing Iranian oil exports (which shore up their economy) to 0
– Iran says US violated their airspace— Secular Talk (@KyleKulinski) June 20, 2019
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AAN Staff
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