Trump as a gunslinger? “The president did not come up with any excuse to attack Iran”

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday that the president did not invent a reason to attack Iran and his decision was based on “feelings grounded in facts.”

Leavitt was asked during Tuesday's White House press briefing about President Donald Trump's claims Monday that Iran would attack U.S. and Israeli forces within three days if he did not attack first.

– This was the president's feeling based on facts; facts given to him by his top negotiators who had been talking to the Iranian regime in good faith – said Leavitt. – The Iranian regime lied, deceived the United States of America, and was clearly trying to continue its nuclear program in order to create a bomb that would, of course, threaten the United States of America again. Their arsenal of ballistic missiles was expanding rapidly and aggressively from month to month, she added.

When the questioner asked if the president was making this up, Leavitt replied that “the president isn't making anything up.”

The “prevent the gunman” strategy. White House argument

In explaining the decision to go to war with Iran, Trump offered several shifting justifications. On Monday, he compared himself to a gunfighter who was the first to pull out a gun and shoot during a duel. He also argued that Iran intended to attack not only Israel and the US, but also to attack “the entire Middle East” and “take over” the entire region. In some statements he claimed that Iran intended to attack within seven days and in others within three days.

Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested that the US was forced to attack because Israel was planning such an attack, which would make US forces in the region vulnerable to Iranian retaliation.

War goals, or what does “surrender” mean?

When asked when the war would end, the president's spokeswoman said it would be soon, but noted that it would depend on Trump's acknowledgment that he had achieved his goals.

– The president will order an end to these operations when he determines that Iran no longer poses a real threat for the United States of America, Leavitt said. She emphasized that the “unconditional surrender” mentioned by the president does not necessarily mean formal surrender of the regime.

“Iran can talk all it wants, and its words will be empty once we have completely annihilated its navy, which is what we are doing, when we have eliminated the threat of its ballistic missile capability, when we can finally and decisively guarantee that it will no longer be able to develop a nuclear bomb that would threaten the United States, our allies and our troops in the region, and that is exactly what President Trump is seeking to do,” she said.

From Washington Oskar Górzyński (PAP)

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