Trump learns Iranians can be nationalists, too

Responsible foreign policy requires seeing things from your adversaries' point of view

President Trump.
(Image credit: Illustrated | AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Department of Defense via AP, str33tcat/iStock)

News that Iran has shot down an American drone in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz, and that President Trump approved — then called off at the last minute — strikes on Iranian targets, makes it clearer than ever that the two countries are on a collision course that's increasingly likely to end in a shooting war. Which is exactly what National Security Adviser John Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and a long list of leading Republican politicians appear to desire.

Like a spurned lover who's never gotten over being dumped, Republicans have fumed about Iran since the American-backed shah was overthrown in the Islamic revolution of 1979. Add in the Trump administration drive to scuttle the Iran nuclear deal and ramp up painful economic sanctions, the post-9/11 tendency of Republican politicians to take Israel's side in any regional dispute, and the administration's feckless deference to the theocratic regime in Saudi Arabia, including in its proxy war with Iran in Yemen — and the prospect of an all-out war with Iran seems wildly overdetermined.

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Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.