.MaddowBlog: Pentagon contradicts Pres. Trump on targeting Iranian cultural sites.
On Saturday, Donald Trump declared via Twitter that he’d identified a series of Iranian targets, which the president said he’s prepared to attack if Iran retaliates for the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Some of the targets, the Republican added, are “important to … Iranian culture.”
Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper sought to douse an international outcry on Monday by ruling out military attacks on cultural sites in Iran if the conflict with Tehran escalates further, despite President Trump’s threat to destroy some of the country’s treasured icons. In other words, the Pentagon has no intention of implementing Trump’s plan. The president’s tweets may make him feel better – Trump is fond of pointless chest-thumping exercises – but there’s no reason anyone should perceive his rhetoric as an accurate reflection of what may happen in reality.
Indeed, it was just a couple of months ago when Trump boasted that the United States has “taken” Syrian oil, and he intends to partner with the private sector to extract even more. Soon after, the Pentagon’s top spokesperson insisted that the United States would absolutely not be taking any Syrian oil.
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