THE PRESIDENT IS WINNING ALREADY

Take a deep breath. Exhale slowly. Relax. President Trump is NOT going to attack Iran. He doesn’t have to. As even this Bloomberg News writer acknowledges, the president is winning already.

The most true part of Trump’s explanation for why he called off a retaliatory strike after Iran shot down a reconnaissance drone is when he said: “I’m in no hurry.”

It should be clear by now to all the sentient this president uses economic leverage to alter the behavior of hostile nations.

Trump’s economic sanctions are strangling Iran. The pallets of cash Obama shipped to the mullahs have long since been spent. Income derived from Hezbollah’s drug smuggling is plunging.

With each passing day, Iran gets weaker. With each passing day, popular unrest grows. To get what he wants, all the president needs to do is wait. It’s his enemies – in Iran and elsewhere – who are running out of time.

Here’s an excellent article describing what Trump is doing and why it’s working.

The rest of Trump’s account of when, and why, he “called off” the retaliatory strike was dramatic license.

He didn’t learn about casualties until he asked for an estimate just before the strike was to launch, the president said.

It would be most unusual – and grossly negligent — for military planners to present options for strikes without providing estimates of friendly and enemy casualties, and “collateral damage.”

“There are always various strike options with various predictions,” said retired Air Force LtCol. “Buzz” Patterson, who would know. He carried the “nuclear football” during the Clinton administration.

“The principal and his aides know way ahead of time what casualty projections are,” said retired Air Force Col. Rob Maness, who used to provide them to generals when he worked in the National Military Command Center.

This was a PSYOP from the get-go, said former Air Force intelligence officer Fiona Mikayes, who also worked in the NMCC. The president never intended to launch a strike, she said. Maness agreed.

Trump ordered a cyber attack on Iranian computers that control missile launches, CBS reported Sunday (6/23). This was a proportionate response, likely how the president intended to retaliate all along.

Trump’s (suspiciously precise) estimate of “150 casualties” almost certainly was meant for a specific audience.

It may have been “rogue elements” in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps who ordered the strike on the drone, Trump said.

“Potus received new intel last night that the Iran national leadership was furious with the tactical commander who shot down the drone,” Gen. Jack Keane, a former Army Vice Chief of Staff, said on Fox Business last Friday morning (6/21).

Could the “150 casualties” refer to commanders of the IRGC?

John Kerry and other former Obama administration officials have urged the mullahs not to deal with Trump, to hold on until he is impeached, or a Democrat is elected to succeed him.

https://twitter.com/manny_ottawa/status/1142752320394014720

Provocations occurred shortly after prominent Democrats made contact with senior Iranian officials. Was this more than coincidence?

In this video, taken as they were leaving the White House after a briefing (6/20) on administration plans to retaliate for the drone strike, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Dem leader Chuck Schumer appear to be celebrating.

Their glee had nothing to with what they’d just been told, Pelosi and Schumer say. But could they have been celebrating because they thought Trump was about to fall into a trap?

Iranian mouthpiece Trita Parsi was told by a Congressional staffer that a strike was imminent.

Interesting nugget here as well. @tparsi had been informed by a Hill staffer in touch with the Pentagon that military strikes were imminent. Apparently everyone thought these strikes were really happening right up until the last moment. @esaagar Full: https://t.co/6QrS6wKao6 pic.twitter.com/8PZA85W5by

— Krystal Ball (@krystalball) June 24, 2019

The Lying Swine were prepped to declare the president a reckless warmonger for launching a strike to avenge a machine; their abrupt shift in narrative to calling Trump a pussy for not launching a strike was awkward.

Did the president – knowing they would leak it – have Democrat leaders briefed on a strike he had no intention of carrying out? That would be the Mother of All strategic deceptions.

This is what Trump accomplished with his “head fake,” Mikayes said:

*The Iranians were scared (spit)less, went onto high alert, which – after a couple of days – is very debilitating to maintain.

*If they turned on their air defense radars, our ECM (Electronic Counter Measures) and ECCM (Electronic Counter-Counter Measures) guys got some good intel.

*The immediate consequence of shooting down the U.S. drone was to restrict commercial air traffic to Iran, which increases economic pressure on the regime.

*Since Iran clearly was the aggressor, it will be harder, now, for Euro weenies to resist pressure from the Trump administration to join in tougher sanctions.

Trump imposed additional sanctions Monday (6/24). They directly target senior Iranian leaders.

*Because he exercised restraint this time, the president will be insulated against charges he’s acting recklessly if he has to retaliate militarily for a future provocation.

Trump will start no fights with the mullahs. He’s content to strangle the regime slowly with economic sanctions.

But the enemy has a vote. There may be a provocation so deadly the president’s hand is forced.

If Iranians kill Americans, there will be a military response. Trump will not permit Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.

If Iran tries to close the Strait of Hormuz, there likely will be Hell to pay. But any military action to end the blockade would be taken in concert with, and in support of our allies in the region, not unilaterally.

There will be no use of ground troops, no invasion of Iran, no attempt to bring about regime change by force. No “war.”

Democrats and the Lying Swine seem disappointed by that. I wonder why.

Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration.