Trump’s actual statement in his “civilization” threat, and the reactions to it
By now you probably have read the many reactions to Trump’s Truth Social post last Tuesday, threatening to escalate. Both the woke left and the isolationist right spoke as with one voice: “He’s crazy! He’s a war criminal! He’s threatening to nuke the Iranian people and wipe them out!”
Never mind that a ceasefire followed, and that whatever threat he made was a negotiating tactic. Many of them were able to immediately pivot, with no sense of irony or shame, to some version of, “Trump TACO – he always chickens out, the coward.”
But you can search and search among them, as well as MSM articles on the subject, and it will be very difficult to find the full text of Trump’s actual threat. It’s not as though the text is long, either; it’s just a paragraph. One might think that before interpreting his meaning a person might actually read it and then quote it? But actually looking at the text and discussing it in any fair manner would ruin the anti-Trump propaganda message.
And they know they don’t need to do it. They count on their audiences (or people in general, and that includes Trump defenders) not to look it up. They just cite the first sentence for the most part, and then react to that.
But the whole thing is still up there for anyone to see. And here it is:
A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less redicalized minds prevail, maybe something wonderful can happen. WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and ocmplex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!
This had been preceded by an Easter day post of Trump’s featuring the f-word (among other things) and starting with this: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped in one, in Iran.”
How does any of this translate into nuclear weapons in anything except the Trump-haters’ fevered brains? Power plants and bridges (even if capitalized) don’t need nuclear weapons. And the “civilization” in that Tuesday message is quite obviously the “47 years of extortion, corruption, and death” that he threatens to end or supposedly (hopefully?) has already ended, being replaced by these supposedly “less-radicalized minds” with whom he’s now dealing. And that last sentence – “God Bless the Great People of Iran!” (with the capitalizations and the exclamation point) not only makes it clear that Trump has no intention of harming the ordinary population of Iran much less wiping them out, it is also in line with virtually everything he’s said and done up to this point.
So the misunderstanding by the anti-Trump pundits and politicians and MSM propagandists (hmmm; three m-words) is either willful or strikingly negligent or both. I believe it’s willful; I believe they did read the whole thing for the most part and understood it, but assumed their audience wouldn’t read it and that the first sentence could be successfully exploited for anti-Trump propaganda purposes. But if the pundits and politicians and MSM propagandists didn’t read the whole thing, that’s where the abysmal negligence would come in.
You can read more of their reactions here as well as here.
It’s certainly possible to critique Trump’s use of the word “civilization.” It was purposely hyperbolic, although the rest of the paragraph made that more clear. And of course it’s possible to criticize the war itself in good faith, for various reasons. But to pretend Trump was ready to use nukes and that he should be impeached for that? No, that’s not done in good faith.
It’s also instructive to see some newer posts from Trump, such as this:
All U.S. Ships, Aircraft, and Military Personnel, with additional Ammunition, Weaponry, and anything else that is appropriate and necessary for the lethal prosecution and destruction of an already substantially degraded Enemy, will remain in place in, and around, Iran, until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with. If for any reason it is not, which is highly unlikely, then the “Shootin’ Starts,” bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before. It was agreed, a long time ago, and despite all of the fake rhetoric to the contrary – NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS and, the Strait of Hormuz WILL BE OPEN & SAFE. In the meantime our great Military is Loading Up and Resting, looking forward, actually, to its next Conquest. AMERICA IS BACK!
Or this, intended to counter various MSM lies:
The Failing New York Times and Fake News CNN each reported a totally FAKE TEN POINT PLAN on the Iran negotiations which was meant to discredit the people involved in the peace process. All ten points were a made up HOAX – EVIL LOSERS!!! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN
I saw that 10-point plan discussed in the MSM and even by some on the right as though it was agreed on by Trump. That seemed preposterous on the face of it, but people were taking it seriously.
We also have this from Trump:
Numerous Agreements, Lists, and Letters are being sent out by people that have absolutely nothing to do with the U.S.A. / Iran Negotiation, in many cases, they are total Fraudsters, Charlatans, and WORSE. They will be rapidly exposed after our Federal Investigation is completed. There is only one group of meaningful “POINTS” that are acceptable to the United States, and we will be discussing them behind closed doors during these Negotiations. These are the POINTS that are the basis on which we agreed to a CEASEFIRE. It is something that is reasonable, and can easily be dispensed with. It’s very much like Fake News CNN last night, headlining a “source” that had no power or authority to write a Letter claiming great authority. President DONALD J. TRUMP
I’m not fond of Trump’s writing style myself. But I think I understand its purposes and I often see its effectiveness. I’m not grading him on style points, even if I’d wish for a more elevated one. I’m grading him on accomplishments.
So far, in a little over a month, Iran’s leadership and capacity for war have been very considerably degraded. A year ago, if someone had told you those thing would be happening in that short amount of time with very little loss of US life, you’d probably be in awe. And this thing isn’t over yet, either.
I saw one pundit in the last week suggest that the 10-point-plan saturating the web was NOT the one in consideration, but no one authoritative spoke about that until Trump did.
I wonder if he waited so long to counter the Fake News (including our own beloved PowerLine writers, because that was what was out there), had the purpose of seeing if anyone who really knew what was in the plan would leak it to get credibility points, or just to screw things up if there were points that either country’s public would not be happy with.
Leakers could be American or Iranian, of course.
Presumably, Israel knows at least something about the positions of both countries.
If anyone did leak, the recipients are holding the data close for some reason.
On Trump’s statement. I think it’s “willful” for the media and pundits. I dont think “negligence” is quite the right word for my acquaintances. Blinded by hate is a better description where anything Trump says will immediately be interpreted in the worst possible light.
One of my conservative friends from way back in high school suggested that Trump should say breathing is good. That way we could get rid of a lot of these very annoying people.
We’ve been doing rounds about Trump’s less-than-competent use of the English language for years. It is still very interesting to me that Trump’s critics respond to his jumbled language by jumping straight to the most egregious and least supportable assumptions about his statements.
I have no idea whether Trump was actually threatening nukes, but you certainly can’t prove it from what he wrote. The actual threat was that, “[a] whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” I can think of a few ways that Trump could have accomplished that without nukes. Therefore, you can’t conclude that he threatened nukes. QED. (But, by the same token, neither can you exclude it. Nukes are certainly one effective, and perhaps the most effective way to cause a “civilization” to “due.”)
But in a strange way, the the knee-jerk manner in which Trump’s critics jump to the worst possible interpretation of his statements actually serves their interests AND Trump’s interests. It serves Trump critics’ interests because of the old saw about a lie making it half-way around the world before the truth gets is shoes on. I suspect that many Americans who are aware of this issue at all believe that Trump explicitly threatened to nuke Tehran.
But this also serves Trump’s interests. No one is talking about what the man actually said, whether it is appropriate for a President to threaten the permanent death of a civilization (even as a negotiating tactic), no one is really talking about whether Trump was trying to bluff and bluster his way out of a corner that he blundered himself into. Instead, we’re talking about whether Trump threatened to nuke Tehran which, no, he did not do. So its fake news.
If Trump were a drinker, that might explain some of his Truth Social posts. But there are copious reports that Trump never sleeps. I think he needs to sleep more, rather than craft wild eyed statements in the middle of the night.
I see Truth Social as further evidence of the dangers of social media. Too easy to write a stream of consciousness and click submit. Then its out there forever.
Like most of the world, I would dearly love to know whether Trump and his inner circle of advisors, if there are any, had factored in Iran’s ability to choke the straits, and create international angst. The uninformed would think that surely a plan to keep the straits open would have been very high priority.
I have suggested in my own Truth Social post that he encourage his Arab friends to form a mercenary army to take and hold the strategic islands in the Gulf and straits. It would obviously have to be mercenary, but they can afford it. Probably an even better alternative would be for the Saudis to expand their existing pipe lines to connect the Gulf states with the Red Sea, bypassing the Gulf completely and leaving the Iranians with an empty bag. Powerlineblog reports that their current pipeline carries about 7M barrels per day; while about 21M normally transit the Straits. It is doable.
Oldflyer:
I think his postings are very much thought out rather than impulsive. Whether each one is a good idea or not is another thing entirely.
And I am about 99% certain that he and his people “factored in Iran’s ability to choke the straits, and create international angst.” Not only is it a well-known threat, but Trump himself mentioned it, for the first time back in 1980. The military also has been aware of the threat for ages and has contingency plans – none of which means those plans will be successful. But we’re still in the early stages of this.
the number of people, turning blue, would not be zero,
if one recalls Reagan’s impromptu, ‘I have signed legislation that will abolish the Soviet Union’ as prologue, this was before the Able Archer wargames,
the colloquoy with Kim Jon Un was similar, and had positive conclusions,
From the campaign documentary, there is a young staffer like Natalie Harp who actually posts many of these threads that the President dictates,
again the over the top reaction from the usual suspects is like noise at this point, specially those who were complicit in getting us to this point with the JCPOA, thats Kerry and Rhodes and everyone inbetween,
same for Kristol fils who once used to care about this thing, there is a performative element here, that rings very hollow,
I think Trump is running a version of Mao’s,”Let a hundred flowers bloom”.
@physicsguy: “One of my conservative friends from way back in high school suggested that Trump should say breathing is good. That way we could get rid of a lot of these very annoying people.”
Does your friend do such out of the box thinking frequently? Unfortunately this idea won’t work, if only because they need to keep breathing so they can keep talking.
I remain highly entertained by the President of the United States. Yes, in the past there was “normal” diplomacy speak that was easy on the ears, meant to keep us from panic and terror, I guess. It was a facade. Fool’s gold.
How effective was it? Not very. Most of the instability in the Middle East and the world, seems to me, originates from Iran. Trump is the exact person needed to birth a “new Iran”.
I wouldn’t wrap myself around the axle trying to defend or project some deep meaning or purpose into these things. Trump just says dumb, emotional stuff. He’s always done it. There’s no 4D chess, it’s just legitimately how his brain works.
It’s best just not to read it.