President Trump canceled strikes against Iran after deciding the attack would not be proportional.

President Donald Trump. Reuters.

President Donald Trump called back strikes 10 minutes before they would have been launched after deciding the attack was not proportional when compared to the loss of an unmanned drone. Reuters. President Trump was told that the strikes, targeting missile and radar batteries involved in the attack on the drone, would kill as many as 150 people. Trump said he was ready to launch the attack but pulled back. He also said that new sanctions were having an effect. A diplomatic message was sent from the United States to Iran via Oman trying to open a dialogue with Iran. Trump reportedly bucked his advisers who were recommending the strikes. Reception to the incident was mixed with some criticizing him while others praised, more along hawk/dove rather than Democrat/Republican lines. 

....On Monday they shot down an unmanned drone flying in International Waters. We were cocked & loaded to retaliate last night on 3 different sights when I asked, how many will die. 150 people, sir, was the answer from a General. 10 minutes before the strike I stopped it, not....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 21, 2019

....proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone. I am in no hurry, our Military is rebuilt, new, and ready to go, by far the best in the world. Sanctions are biting & more added last night. Iran can NEVER have Nuclear Weapons, not against the USA, and not against the WORLD!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 21, 2019

 My Comment:
The reaction to President Trump's actions on Iran has been confusing to say the least. At the same time he is being called a warmonger for picking a fight with Iran and at the same time is being criticizing for not fighting Iran. Even more confusing is that many of his left wing critics are praising him while some of the more hawkish right are condemning. Of course many on the left will criticize him no matter what he does and much of his base is very happy he didn't launch strikes.

What's my thought? I think this was probably the right call. Blowing up a bunch of people probably isn't the right response for a drone being shot down. Nobody had died and the only thing that was lost on both sides was money. Killing a bunch of soldiers and possibly civilians wouldn't bring the drone back and could cause retaliatory attacks.

Launching the strike and then pulling it back also sends a strong message to Iran. They know that they are right up to the line and almost crossed it and that they are getting very close to forcing a military response. They know that if they try this again or cause any loss of life for Americans they are getting hit.

However, I am not sure what Iran is going to do. President Trump is trying hard to get them to come to the negotiating table but so far they have refused to do so. That's an incredibly stupid move for them as it risks conflict and cooperating with the US will have a better outcome for them. They are still angry about the Iran deal, which Obama never should have entered into, being pulled back, so that explains some of their behavior. But pushing the issue this far doesn't make much sense.

This is pretty much what I expected to happen. The chicken little's that were saying that a full scale war was coming were completely wrong. That's not surprising as they said the same thing with North Korea, Syria and Venezuela. I had said that either nothing would happen or there would be very limited strikes and it turned out that I was kinda right on both counts.

I am fairly pleased with President Trump's foreign policy. As mentioned before, he really hasn't gotten into any new wars. Whenever he has used military force it has been restrained and haven't involved any massive invasions. Instead of wasting lives and money he has been doing foreign policy on the cheap. He has also been very willing to let diplomacy work. I have no doubt that if Hillary Clinton was president right now we would be at war with Iran right now if they had provoked us the same way, assuming we weren't too busy being at war with Russia instead.