Trump rejects Iranian ceasefire terms, says he’ll likely attack again after the mid-terms and the war between Saudi Arabia and Yemen continues to heat up.
Trump Trashes Ceasefire Talk
The Wall Street Journal got the exclusive:
President Trump has rejected Iran’s proposal for a seven-day ceasefire and has told aides he expects to resume bombing Iran after the November midterms, U.S. officials said.
Tehran’s proposal would have reopened the Strait of Hormuz and resumed nuclear talks in return for the U.S. lifting its blockade of Iranian ports, which is causing deep damage to the country’s economy. Trump says openly that Tehran is begging for a deal after the midterms that dismantles its nuclear program.
But privately Trump is skeptical Iran would meet his demands and has told his staff that he sees a renewed bombing campaign as likely, the officials said.
Trump’s current position indicates the conflict’s stage—a liminal space between war and peace—is likely to tilt back toward hostilities. But the president, who has declared victory since the earliest days of the seven-month fight, alternates between pursuing diplomacy, ordering airstrikes and tightening sanctions around Iran. His views today could shift as the war drags over the coming weeks, officials said, and could be affected by the results of the midterms.
Trump’s bellicosity was making headlines on multiple fronts today, although the other two (talk of a plan to invade Cuba, supporters calling for martial law before the election) were even more nebulous than this nothing burger from TACO Trump, but the net effect is to alarm and frighten the casual headline scanner who doesn’t have the wherewithal or time to parse the details of this nonsense.
Trump’s comments and rumors of peace continue to impact the oil markets, per Oil Price:
November WTI crude oil futures spent the week trading a possible reopening of the Strait of Hormuz against the risk that shipping conditions have not normalized. The contract fell to $88.67 Tuesday after reports that Iran could reopen the Strait within seven days, then recovered to $96.78 Thursday as the diplomatic story ran into the same problem it had all week: no agreement, no normal tanker traffic, and no proof the physical market is back to normal.
Meanwhile the US admissions of casualties continue to mount.
The Count Mounts, What a Horrible Toll
The Washington Post reported Thursday on “dozens” of troops added to tally of US wounded in the war with Iran:
The Pentagon’s public tally of troops wounded during the Iran war was quietly increased by 37 this week without explanation from the Defense Department.
The increase includes 29 Navy sailors and eight Marines, according to a review of the Pentagon’s public database of personnel killed and wounded during U.S. conflicts and other military operations overseas. The web portal is called the Defense Casualty Analysis System, or DCAS.
As of Wednesday, the total number of troops wounded during the Iran war is 861, according to DCAS. More than half are categorized in the Pentagon database as having occurred in “Overseas Operations” since the start of a July ceasefire between Washington and Tehran that later collapsed. Before then, killed and wounded troops were tallied under “Operation Epic Fury,” the Trump administration’s name for the Iran war.
The DCAS database does not explain how these 37 troops were wounded or when. A Navy official said all the sailors returned to duty following the unspecified injuries.
Will Schryver commented on the news, “”Sailors” and “Marines” are typically found in warships. Somehow 37 of them became casualties in recent weeks, and have now been added to the butcher’s bill. This strongly suggests something rather serious occurred on one or more US Navy warships.”
Read the rest at Naked Capitalism.
Sneak preview, LOTS of Yemen war coverage:
