Ten Minutes from Nuclear Holocaust? Trump Stops Attack on Iran

June 21, 2019—The manufactured provocation around the Straits of Hormuz nearly broke out in war this morning, as the war party demanded a military assault on Iran in response to the Iranian downing of an unmanned U.S. surveillance drone near the Straits of Hormuz early Thursday morning, June 20. While the U.S. military swore Iran made was an unprovoked attack against a drone in international waters, 21 miles from the Iran coast, Tehran insists it has evidence that the drone was within the 12-mile limit of Iranian airspace. Iran displayed parts of the drone they said were recovered from Iranian territory in the Gulf of Oman. They also announced that they had sent two warnings to the drone to change course, the last one coming 10 minutes before they shot it down.

The war party surrounding Trump then went to work demanding an immediate military attack on Iran, with wild claims about the international disaster for the U.S. if they failed to respond forcefully. Trump met all day June 20 with military and security staff and leaders of the Congress. Later in the evening, the New York Times released a story claiming that Trump had ordered an attack on three radar and missile sites in Iran, that the planes were in the air, but that he then reversed himself and called it off, 10 minutes before the bombs would have been dropped.

In fact, Trump refuted that story, both in a tweet and in an interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd on Friday morning, June 21. He told NBC that he had never given a “green light” to the operation, and there were no planes in the air. He explained:

“We had something ready to go subject to my approval. They came in to me and said, ‘Sir, we’re ready to go, we’d like a decision.’

“I said, ‘How many people will be killed?’ In this case, Iranians.

“ ‘Sir, I’d like to get back to you on that.’ Great people, these generals.

“They came back and said, ‘Sir, approximately 150.’

“I thought about it for a second, and I said, ‘You know what? They shot down an unmanned drone, and here we are sitting with 150 dead people.’ That would have taken place within a half-hour after I said go ahead. And I don’t like it. I didn’t think it was proportional.”