Dear Commons Community,

Reuters and other new media are reporting this morning that President Trump approved military strikes yesterday against Iran in retaliation for the downing of an unmanned $130-million surveillance drone, but pulled back from launching the attacks.

Trump had initially approved strikes on a handful of targets such as radar and missile batteries.

They were set to take place just before dawn this morning to minimize risk to the Iranian military or to civilians.

Planes were in the air and ships were in position, but no missiles fired, when the order to stand down came.

The abrupt reversal put a halt to what would have been Trump’s third military action against targets in the Middle East, saying Trump had struck twice at targets in Syria, in 2017 and 2018.

However, it is not clear whether attacks on Iran might still go forward at a later time.

Prudence and patience are virtues!

Tony

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