Monday, January 06, 2020

"America's" Achilles Heel

Now that the U.S. has attacked Iran, the Iranians are deciding how best to conduct war against the United States.  The answer, to me, is fairly obvious.  The way to defeat the United States is to harm the domestic political viability of the U.S. president.  Make the U.S. suffer in such a way that the president will be blamed.  If successful, this will result in a new U.S. administration and a likely retreat from war.

Thus, the Iranians (and other Trump/U.S. adversaries such as the Chinese) will likely be engaged in a battle for public opinion -- U.S. public opinion to be precise.  (The attack on Iran has already helped Iranian leaders in solidifying Iranian public opinion behind the current rulers.)   While I belittle the theory that the Russians affected the 2016 U.S. presidential election, I think it plausible that Iran, in a more active war with the U.S., can affect the 2020 elections.

The table is set for Iran due to the fact that America is greatly divided against itself, with Trump being hated by a large percentage of the U.S. electorate.  They would be wise to find the wedge issues in U.S. politics, and try to break these wide open.  Trump himself is the biggest wedge.  By making their war with the U.S. a war with Trump, the Iranians will find many Americans receptive to their perspective.

The obvious targets, then, are related to Trump personally.  Attacking his properties and personal allies could be somewhat popular amongst the American electorate, and extremely divisive.  Would Dems and never-Trump Republicans rally behind him?  Doubtful.  An even more efficacious approach would coordinate such attacks with China, Russia, and other "resistance" countries.

No comments:

To Our Children's Children's Children Once More

  This is my occasional confession of my true view of our world and what we might do to steer our ship in a better direction.  I'm sendi...