Donald Trump just found a way to make things even worse
Amid Trump fabricating that he was engaged in constructive talks with China to end the trade war; amid Trump looking to abolish birthright citizenship, presumably by an attempt to amend the constitution by executive order (impossible); and amid Trump ingratiating himself further with crown misanthrope and nature satan Jair Bolsonaro, Trump decided it would be in good taste to further agitate already highly agitated Iran and further compromise regional trust.
If you were to draw a straight line from Israel to Kashmir, every nation is in considerable political tumult except for perhaps Jordan. India and Pakistan, two nuclear states, are at each other’s throats over the long-disputed Kashmir region and the situation in Afghanistan is highly precarious, just to name a couple regional issues. Trump then tweets this:
“The United States of America was not involved in the catastrophic accident during final launch preparations for the Safir SLV Launch at Semnan Launch Site One in Iran. I wish Iran best wishes and good luck in determining what happened at Site One.”
As noted by The Guardian, “Intelligence experts said Trump may have exposed a previously unknown level of resolution US spy satellites have achieved, or that, somehow, US intelligence was able to get a closer shot of the launch site from an overflying aircraft.”
The reason I brought up the region earlier is because this could have wide-reaching regional effects. Trump, for some reason, has decided to negotiate a potential withdrawal from Afghanistan with the Taliban, who are still a terror organization in case you were wondering. What exactly are they going to think once they discover we have some previously unknown spying technology in the region? Same for Pakistan, especially. I have a feeling they might develop trust issues.
Whoever let Trump do this is a spectacular imbecile. At this point, I don’t think it’s worth blaming Trump; I’m starting to blame his handlers. Do you blame your friend’s dog for shitting on your rug? No; you blame your friend for not recognizing his dog had to go shit. The dog can’t really help it. So what does this mean for diplomacy going forward? Nothing good, but the repercussions will be felt for some time and any chance we might have of rekindling something akin to the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal is getting impossible small.
Democracy thrives in snarkiness