A CNN panelist dismissed a conservative pundit's validation of president Donald Trump's self-imposed deadline for military action against Iran.
The president set a two-week deadline to decide whether to launch an attack against Iran's nuclear program, according to the White House, and conservative journalist Rob Bluey told "CNN This Morning" that Trump seemed to be trying to force the country to negotiate a settlement to avoid war.
"It's eyebrows up," Bluey said. "President Trump's doctrine is peace through strength, and so I agree ... that he's trying to project power in the region. He would ultimately like to reach a diplomatic solution. I think he treats this as a very serious matter. He does not want to put American lives in harm's way if he doesn't need to, and so that's why you're seeing him drag this out."
Israel has relentlessly pounded Iran for nearly a week already after Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected an agreement to end nuclear enrichment in the country, and Bluey cast doubt on its willingness to negotiate as the bombs fall.
"Now, I do have concerns that what can Iran do in the next two weeks?" Bluey said. "I mean, we will continue to see death there in not only that country, but in Israel, and so every day that passes is another day that you give the Iranian regime an opportunity to strike back on Israel."
New York Times podcaster Lourdes Garcia-Navarro pooh-poohed Bluey's explanation.
"That's the generous interpretation of what's happening," she said. "I think another interpretation of what's happening and, ultimately, we don't know what's in the president's mind because he changes it so often."
"We saw Steve Bannon showing up at the White House," Garcia-Navarro continued. "We know that MAGA is split over this decision. Basically, president Trump came into power with this promise that there wouldn't be any foreign entanglements, and so, politically speaking, this is very dicey for him. The other thing about this two weeks is, the two weeks can be two months. As they wrote in the New York Times, the space-time continuum has no meaning to the White House, often, because we really don't know what is in the president's mind."
"This, though, has real ramifications," she added. "There are people in Iran who are dying, there are people in Israel who are dying, and in the meantime, you know, this is not a reality TV show. This is an actual act of conflict."
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