This image provided on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2019, by the U.S. government and DigitalGlobe and annotated by the source, shows damage to the infrastructure at Saudi Aramco’s Abaqaiq oil processing facility in Buqyaq, Saudi Arabia. (U.S. government/Digital Globe)
The raid on the Saudi oil fields was at least as big as Pearl Harbor, possibly bigger, if you think about it, especially in terms of the amount of physical damage done. Whether this was accomplished directly by Iran or by one of its proxies or whether drone or cruise missiles or both were involved are distinctions without a difference. It happened and the repercussions, financial and otherwise, are already being felt.
Of course, the i's must be dotted (the U.S. is already claiming conclusive evidence), but assuming that is done, Iran (i. e. The Islamic Republic and its holdings) must be punished severely or they will continue their actions, pushing further and further as they have been. You can claim this last one was an attack on Saudi Arabia, not us, but this is the world's oil supply. It affects economies around the globe. In cases like this, there are no national borders. Iran cannot be allowed to continue under any circumstances. You don't have to like the Saudis to see the extreme danger.
At this point too, it would be unwise, in fact, counter-indicated, for Trump to talk to Iran's leadership. Our president--at the behest of the French president, who looks like a fool at the moment-- was rumored to be meeting with Rouhani at the U. N., even though the Iranian president is nothing but a figurehead. (An American president should be meeting with Ayatollah Khamenei, the country's Supreme Leader, and dictator.) Furthermore, this isn't like talking with Kim Jung-un, who fired some missiles into the ocean for show. The weapons here were fired directly at the world's largest oil refinery with disastrous results. What the mullahs--a regime of religious psychopaths--will do next is anybody's guess, but stopping their behavior without making them pay in the strongest way seems impossible now.
This absolutely should not mean putting American boots on the ground under any circumstances. It should be an air obliteration of anything associated with the mullahs and their Revolutionary Guard, including oil fields, ports, factories, military installations, and nuclear sites. Keep doing it until they scream. Leave the results for the Iranian people to sort out when we're done.
It will be rough for them, of course, but on multiple occasions, the Iranians have shown great bravery in demonstrations against the mullahs. With the U.S. solidly and publicly behind regime change (not ignoring the people when they cry out to him the way Obama did), it should inspire the demonstrators to finish the job this time. You're dreaming if you think Iran can change without regime change. Eventually, maybe soon, maybe now, they will have nuclear weapons. If they are willing to go after the Saudi 0il fields with relatively conventional weapons, thumbing their noses at the world, think what they will do when they have nukes.
And speaking of Obama, just why did he negotiate the bizarre Iran Deal in which the USA and other nations agreed to send billions to the mullahs in return for a nuclear agreement in which inspecting Iran's military installations--the very place where nuclear weapons experiments would be conducted-- was off-limits? How could he have trusted these people?
It sounded crazy then. Now, with Saudi Arabia's oil field in flames from a cruise missile or drone attack instigated by Iran or one of its proxies, it seems completely nuts. Perhaps, after the treachery of the Russia probe gets revealed, if it does, someone can look into that.
Finally, apropos Trump and the decision he has to make, the first time around when the Iranians shot down one of our drones some weeks back, he supposedly called off an attack at the last minute. It was the right thing to do then. This time, however, he doesn't really have a choice.
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