How Trump's 'Maximum Pressure' Iran Policy is Leading the U.S. Into War
On a balmy September 28, Sen. Lindsey Graham went golfing with President Donald Trump at the president's private golf club in Sterling, Virginia, about 30 miles outside Washington D.C.
As they played the tree-studded course on the banks of the Potomac River, Graham assured Trump that Senate Republicans had his back on the formal impeachment inquiry underway in the House. But Graham's principal message that day focused on Iran—namely the need to punish the Islamic Republic militarily for what Trump and many others believe was its drone-and-cruise-missile attack on two major Saudi Arabian oil facilities two weeks earlier.
"Make Iran pay a price," Graham, appearing the next day on CBS's Face the Nation, recalled urging Trump. The South Carolina Republican said he also told the president that his last-minute orders in June to call off a planned attack in retaliation for Iran's downing of an American drone had failed to moderate Iran's behavior. "You had a measured response when they shot down the drone. It didn't work, Mr. President," Graham told Trump. "They're running wild, the Iranians. Put 'em back in a box."
So far, Trump has held his fire, wary of igniting a much wider Middle East war that some supporters warn could sink his chances for reelection. But analysts say the region is headed for a major conflagration despite the president's restraint. Here's why: Ever since last year, when Trump quit a 2015 nuclear accord that he
