EDITORIAL: Time for Trump to tread lightly
Now is the time for restraint and moderation over bluster. Sadly, these are not Trump’s strong points
If there’s one stand-out feature of the current US administration, it would have to be bluster (sycophancy to Donald Trump may run a close second). The president and his underlings have huffed and puffed their way through patent falsehoods, strong-arm "diplomacy" and reneging on key multilateral agreements. It’s a noxious habit unlikely to die soon — even if the stability of the Middle East hangs in the balance.Tensions are high after last week’s attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf. The US, quick to lay the blame on arch-enemy Iran, will send 1,000 troops to the region, on top of 1,500 dispatched last month.Iran, for its part, protests its innocence. That’s not to say the country’s hands are necessarily clean. It has cause to be disgruntled: its economy has been in free fall since the US reneged on a 2015 multilateral agreement offering sanctions relief.But little has been presented in the way of hard evidence to justify an arguably overenthusiastic US response, and witness accou...
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