Our hawkish, imperious ways
Daniel Larison, a very anti-war, anti-imperialist conservative, has been on a tear:
Iran hawks argue and act in bad faith all the time. They howled about the JCPOA in the beginning because they said Iran would cheat with impunity. That didn’t happen, so they changed their attack. When Iran fully complied with the agreement, they howled that the agreement was too easy on them. When the administration reneged on the deal and reimposed U.S. sanctions, Iran was still in compliance for more than a year, so Iran hawks kept agitating for more provocations to make them stop complying. Then when Iran finally began to reduce compliance last year in protest over this treatment, Iran hawks started howling about the problem they had caused as a reason to put even more pressure on Iran. Then they whine when no one else takes their howling seriously.
Daniel Larison, Sanctions Are the Problem
Very much like the Bush administration’s reaction to European opposition to the Iraq war, the Trump administration’s reaction to European opposition to their Iran obsession comes from the belief that allies should behave like vassals and should never challenge what the hegemon wants, no matter how insane it is.