Trump calls Iran conflict 'small potatoes,' backs Vance's refusal to call it a war
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The Facts
- Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Sept. 4 that the conflict with Iran is "small potatoes" for the United States.
- Trump said he calls the fighting "a military conflict" rather than a war, adding "it's not a big thing."
- Vance said at a White House press briefing a day earlier that he would not describe the fighting with Iran as a war.
- Trump said US strikes on Iran are now "intermittent."
- The conflict has cost US taxpayers more than $37.5 billion, according to reporting on Trump's remarks.
- Eighteen US service members have died in the conflict.
- The United States and Israel began striking targets inside Iran on Feb. 28, and Iran struck back.
- Trump said the United States may strike Iran's Pickaxe Mountain "very soon."
- The remarks come ahead of US midterm congressional elections, amid rising energy and food prices.
Context
What exactly did Vance say?
At his first White House press briefing on Thursday, Vance said "I wouldn't call it a war right now," pointing to the end of major combat operations months earlier Raw Story,Straits Times. He also declined to predict whether the fighting would end before the congressional elections India Today,India Today.
What is Pickaxe Mountain?
Pickaxe Mountain, also known as Kolang Gaz La, sits near Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment plant and is believed by Washington to conceal an underground nuclear complex vesti.ru,Московский …. Natanz was struck by the United States in June along with the Fordow and Isfahan nuclear sites, and Trump said in late July that the US would hit the mountain absent a nuclear deal vesti.ru,Московский ….
Was there a ceasefire, and when might the conflict end?
Tehran and Washington signed a memorandum on halting hostilities in mid-June, but the two sides exchanged strikes again afterward and the conflict remains unresolved vesti.ru,РИА Новости. Asked when it would be settled, Trump said, "I don't know, I can't tell you," adding he wanted a resolution so the next president would not have to deal with it РИА Новости.
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
Left and right largely agree on this one.
- Where Left and Right agree
- Both reject calling the Iran fighting 'small potatoes': eighteen dead Americans and $37.5 billion demand an accounting before any strike on Pickaxe Mountain.
- Where Left and Right differ in emphasis
- Both refuse the shrunken language; one because the strikes themselves should stop, the other because open-ended force owes the taxpayers funding it a case.
- Why they won’t converge
- The divide is over the counterfactual, not the ledger: one side prices the war in Americans dead, dollars spent and consent never sought, the other in crises claimed to be prevented — figures both can accept without meeting.
- Watch for
- Watch whether Iranian fire on commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz stops or widens, since Vance has already conceded that pressure has not halted it while crediting US strikes with averting a worldwide energy crisis.www.theepochtimes.com
How left and right read it
Eighteen service members are dead and more than $37.5 billion is spent, because strikes that began on Feb. 28 have never stopped, and that bill lands on people who were never asked. That is not small potatoes. Calling the strikes intermittent, or a military conflict rather than a war, shrinks the language while Pickaxe Mountain is floated as the next target — so the demand is to end the strikes, not rename them.
“President Donald Trump on Friday labeled the Iran war "small potatoes," the latest attempt to minimize a six-month conflict that caused a spike in gas prices and led to the deaths of 18 American service-members.” — CNN International
An open-ended use of American force has to justify itself to the people funding it, and $37.5 billion since strikes began on Feb. 28 is no rounding error. Calling the fighting "intermittent" and "not a big thing" lowers the bar for continuing it, but the burden runs the other way. Eighteen Americans are dead. Before Pickaxe Mountain, what is the case for more?
The receipts — all 81 sources
Wire services (3)
Independent coverage (50)
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