The Right Has A Problem, Ctd

The United States obtained intercepted communication between senior Iranian officials discussing this month’s U.S. military strikes on Iran’s nuclear program and remarking that the attack was less devastating than they had expected, said four people familiar with the classified intelligence circulating within the U.S. government.

The communication, intended to be private, included Iranian government officials speculating as to why the strikes directed by President Donald Trump were not as destructive and extensive as they had anticipated, these people said. Like some others, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.

The intercepted signals intelligence is the latest preliminary information offering a more complicated picture than the one conveyed by the president, who has said the operation “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program. [WaPo]

So it seems there’s objective evidence to trust the Defense Intelligence Agency assessments more than President Trump’s “Well, some guy told me!”

Some readers may wonder why this is important. As an independent voter who’s watched Trump, when my gorge wasn’t rising, from the start of his first campaign, this indicates to me that he’s not changed a whit. His actions have no connection to justice or making the world a better place. He continually seeks to improve his political position by pleasing politically extreme factions, implementing crackpot ideas, such as the failed tariffs, return the United States to a mythical Golden Age in which most Americans would be miserable, and generally taking shots at a Democratic opposition that is only slightly less incompetent than the Republicans.

And sometimes more incompetent.

This makes his decision to employ weapons, even against an Iran in the grips of a theological government that tortures its own people and spreads terror internationally in the name of a divine creature, suspect. Without the latter, he’d be completely unjustified in his decision to bomb Iran.

And, as Steve Benen points out, even this was unnecessary. He’s been boomeranged by his own decision to torpedo the JCPOA.

It’s perhaps not surprising that our bombing of the Iran sites was less than completely effective, and not because this is the Trump Administration, home of the incompetent, but because it’s a hard mission.

The offense is the boastful, grasping manner of the Mendacity Machine, President Trump. It suggests the future will become worse as he finds his frantically desired glory keeps slipping between his fingers.