‘Of course there’s going to be retaliation,’ says one expert. ‘It may be that this is what Trump’s interested in’

For decades, the US and its allies have painted Iran as the world’s biggest sponsor of state terrorism – invoking its Islamic rulers’ supposed revolutionary fanaticism and determined support for militant proxies.

Now a long-standing but mainly latent threat is coalescing, with the war waged on the country by the US and Israel, to raise the risk of an attack on American soil to levels unseen since the murderous al-Qaida assaults of 11 September 2001, experts say.

In an election year, opponents of Donald Trump are warning that such an event could rebound to his advantage – providing him with a pretext to crack down on critics by declaring a state of emergency or even cancelling November’s congressional midterm elections.

Two attacks on Thursday alone illustrated the heightened dangers.

    • ramble81@lemmy.zip
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      4 days ago

      From another post I made: “ I don’t think another 9/11 will unite Americans how they’re thinking it will this time. I can imagine he thinks that there will be a grand incident in the US and everyone will unite behind him as our savior to stomp down the “big baddie” and he’ll be looked at as a hero.

      That’s not gonna work this time. He’s too hated and will be looked at as the one who caused it and fracture even more. You can’t play that card twice. ”

      • wheezy@lemmy.ml
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        4 days ago

        You’re right. The point isn’t to unite. The point is to round people up into concentration camps with just enough levels of fear and uncertainty to make the average person believe they won’t be victims of the fascist state as long as they don’t speak out.

        First they came for the communist…