NewsBeat
Is the US still in charge of its own foreign policy? Readers debate
Do you agree with our readers? Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments
‘Somebody is pulling the strings’, says reader
When Donald Trump suddenly announces a new foreign policy decision, the immediate reaction is that it is an attempt to divert attention from the toxic Epstein Files.
Too often, such initiatives happen because someone is pulling his strings. With Iran, that someone is Israel’s president, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein reportedly had links with Mossad, Israel’s intelligence services.
Mossad will know what is in the Epstein Files. So will Netanyahu. And ‘Netanyahu is in the driving seat,’ as LBC Washington correspondent Simon Marks put it.
Israel decided to bomb Iran and Trump and the US were dragged along.
The US is no longer in charge of its own foreign policy. This is why the Iran war is being described in America as ‘a war in search of a strategy’.
There surely could not be any threat from Iran. Only six months ago, in August last year, Trump proclaimed that any Iranian threat had been ‘obliterated – and anyone who questioned it was condemned.
But now Iran is being bombed – and obliteration is again being threatened.
The Epstein Files must hold some really Trump-toxic material.
The cover-up has now dragged the US into yet another Middle Eastern war at a cost of around $1billion a day! Drew Milroy, Trowbridge
US is ‘determined to reassert US dominance in a world China and Russia seek to control’, says reader
Your contributors all seem to think the war on Iran is crazy but show little understanding of contemporary history or political realities (MetroTalk, Fri).
Donald Trump’s administration is a neo-con update of George W Bush’s government two decades ago – it is determined to reassert US dominance in a world China and Russia seek to control.
The war on the Iranian regime makes good sense – the mullahs are Nazi nihilists, determined to make a nuclear weapon and destroy Israel with it, whatever the cost – it is as simple as that.
Barack Obama may be far more articulate than Trump but he never had a plan to deal with these various threats to western values and world peace.
Britain, sadly, no longer has military capabilities that the US needs beyond our ports and airbases and we in return rely almost entirely on the US for our defence, as does all of Europe.
As an example, the entire British army would be wiped out in a matter of months of conventional warfare in Ukraine. Sir Keir Starmer knows all of this and did try to support Trump but was initially – and humiliatingly – blocked by his own cabinet.
The Iranian government has flooded Britain with agents determined to intimidate or kill Jewish people, infiltrate college campuses and subvert Palestinian campaigns to their own ends. The Green Party, wittingly or otherwise, plays straight into their hands.
Supporting the destruction of the Iranian leadership and its replacement with more compliant leaders who disavow nuclear ambitions will certainly require boots on the ground.
The difference with Iraq is that the majority of the lranian populace profoundly want this change and all we in Britain have to do is support it. Chris Shepherd, London
‘I have a long-standing dislike of the US’
I have a long-standing dislike of the US and all it stands for, so I applauded Sir Keir Starmer’s initial decision to stay out of the illegal American and Israeli attacks on Iran.
However the prime minister’s recent decisions to aid the United States by allowing them access to some of our airfields makes him a collaborator with international law-breakers.
By not upholding the principals of international law, our world will descend into the completely lawless, free-for-all, anything-goes state that much of the US has been in since its creation almost 250 years ago. A country where even an insane psychopath can become president.
Any abandonment of international law will soon have repercussions domestically, with a breakdown in law and order that will effect everyone of us.
So, please, do not let us go down the American route, that would be a BIG mistake! RA Skett, Tamworth
Would it be a ‘big mistake’ to go down the ‘American route’?
Will (MetroTalk, Thu) says the current war on Iran is comparable with the West ovethrowing the democratically elected government in 1951 and installing the dictatorial Shah.
The writer fails to mention that, for the past half century, since Ayatollah Khomeni came to power, Iran has been ruled by a fanatical Islamic regime, which is even more repressive and brutal than he alleges the Shah ever was. One only has to see what happened earlier this year, with thousands of peaceful protesters being massacred on the streets.
Although there were great disparities of wealth under the Shah, people were free to lead a Western life – without the restrictions imposed by Sharia law – and were probably better off then than they are now.
Unfortunately the bombing raids carried out by the US and Israel seem more aimed at reducing Iran to rubble (as they have done in Gaza) than bringing about meaningful regime change.
One can only hope that once it is over, Iran can recover and the people there can have the freedom and happiness they deserve. Julie, Bath
‘The bombing raids carried out by the US and Israel seem more aimed at reducing Iran to rubble than bringing about meaningful regime change’
Tony Blair loves being the centre of attention and has waded in, supporting Trump and his illegal war to try and make himself relevant again (Metro, Mon).
That’s good to know, because we’ve seen how badly wrong Blair was before about the Middle East with his disastrous war in Iraq – and we must therefore do the exact opposite of whatever he suggests and distance ourselves from Trump and the US, or risk suffering years of upheaval again. Sally Wilton, Bournemouth
Do you agree with our readers? Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments
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