Trump says report saying that the US would deploy 120,000 troops to the Middle East to counter Iran is fake news.

President Donald Trump. The Hill/Getty. 

President Donald Trump has said a report in the New York Times that said the US was deploying 120,000 troops to the Middle East to counter attacks from Iran is fake news. The Hill. Trump was asked about the plan and said he thinks it is fake news. He went on to say "Now, would I do that? Absolutely. But we have not planned for that. Hopefully we’re not going to have to plan for that. And if we did that, we’d send a hell of a lot more troops than that." President Trump has increased pressure on Iran and has increased sanctions and enforced oil embargo on the Islamic country. However, Trump ran as an anti-intervention candidate. Iran has, for it's part, been highly critical of Trump's National Security Adviser, John Bolton, who is seen as a war hawk. 

My Comment:

Looks like the New York Times got caught with their pants down again. My guess is that they heard one of many options being offered up about Iran and assumed that it was good to go. It seems very likely that the story was not correct. Trump denied it pretty forcefully and I tend to believe him. 

Do we have a plan to go to war with Iran? Sure. We have a plan to go to war with the UK as well, or face an alien invasion or zombie uprising, but that doesn't mean any of those things are likely. The US government plans for pretty much anything and part of the Defense Departments job is to prepare plans like this and send them to the President. If a report exists, I am guessing it was a preliminary one out of many different options. 

Plus, the numbers cited in the article make little sense. 120,000 troops is not anywhere near enough to invade Iran, even if most of those are combat troops. We would be seeing way more troops if that was the case. And the numbers are too high if we were just sending troops to the region to defend our current forces and interests in the Middle East. It's just an odd number all around. 

It's also possible that this was just a John Bolton fantasy. Bolton is a bit of a war hawk and may indeed want us to change the regime in Iran. That doesn't mean that Trump is going to listen to his advice. Trump is famous for disagreeing with his advisers and I don't see why people would assume that even if the report was true that Trump would agree to do it. 

For his part, President Trump certainly doesn't sound like he wants to go to war. Indeed, it seems a lot like his approach to North Korea, where he was using a lot of saber rattling to try and get them to the negotiating table. I'm pretty sure that is what he is doing again right now. It's going to be up to the Iranians though to see if they want to come to the table. 

I do have to say that tensions are pretty high right now. Iran has been blamed for a sabotage attack on several ships, including oil transports under the flag of Saudi Arabia. And their proxies in Yemen, the Houthi rebels, just launched a drone attack on Saudi Arabia's oil pipelines. There is a real possibility that Iran could do something very stupid that could lead us all to war. Certainly the attack on the oil tankers isn't an action that helps anyone and the Iranians are lucky that nothing has come of it so far. 

That being said, I don't think the Iranians are that stupid. Provoking a war between Iran and the United States would be a huge disaster for them, far worse than any sanctions or other economic stress. Though Iran is powerful, they know that going to war with the United States would be the end of their country for all intents and purposes. 

Still, the rhetoric is getting a bit tense. Iran has always had intense rhetoric though, but I'm more concerned about their actions. If they do start launching attacks against US troops and civilians in the Middle East, there will be hell to pay. Let us hope that calmer heads prevail.