According to a report from The New York Times, President Trump ordered a strike on Iran but then decided against it.
MSN:
President Trump approved military strikes against Iran in retaliation for downing an American surveillance drone, but pulled back from launching them on Thursday night after a day of escalating tensions.
As late as 7 p.m. Thursday, military and diplomatic officials were expecting a strike, after intense discussions and debate at the White House among the president’s top national security officials and congressional leaders, according to multiple senior administration officials involved in or briefed on the deliberations.
Officials said the president had initially approved attacks on a handful of Iranian targets, like radar and missile batteries.
The operation was underway in its early stages when it was called off, a senior administration official said. Planes were in the air and ships were in position, but no missiles had been fired when word came to stand down, the official said.
The report continues
It was not clear whether Mr. Trump simply changed his mind on the strikes or whether the administration altered course because of logistics or strategy. It was also not clear whether the attacks might still go forward.
Asked about the plans for a strike and the decision to hold back, the White House declined to comment, as did Pentagon officials. No government officials asked The New York Times to withhold the article.
The retaliation plan was intended as a response to the shooting down of the unmanned, $130 million surveillance drone, which was struck Thursday morning by an Iranian surface-to-air missile, according to a senior administration official who was briefed on the military planning and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential plans.
The strike was set to take place just before dawn Friday in Iran to minimize risk to the Iranian military or to civilians.
But military officials received word a short time later that the strike was off, at least temporarily.
President Trump is yet to Tweet about this but this seems to me like a Neo-Con leaked story. It is clear that President Trump is being extremely cautious with Iran and doesn’t want a war. The Neo-Cons likely feel that one way to get President Trump into a war is by forcing his hand politically through the Media or by provoking Iran.
Breitbart’s Joel Pollak had a different view on this story:
Once in a while, leaks are very smart. https://t.co/3CHYixkji0
— Joel B. Pollak (@joelpollak) June 21, 2019
“No government officials asked The New York Times to withhold the article.” I’m sure they didn’t. Call this a virtual retaliation. https://t.co/3CHYixkji0
— Joel B. Pollak (@joelpollak) June 21, 2019
Joel could be right but I find a few holes in this theory. The first hole is I don’t think it makes President Trump look all the great. When you order a strike you should have confidence in it. The idea that Trump would order a strike then turn back on that doesn’t seem great to me. The second is that this has a high chance of backfiring. Iran may further use this as a pretense to claim the US wants war with them even though Iran is the one doing all the provoking.
Only time, and likely a Trump tweet will tell us the answer to this story. I don’t trust the times when they say “No government officials asked The New York Times to withhold the article.” because they just released one that President Trump didn’t want to be released.
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