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Rachel Maddow sounded the alarm on Thursday about the Trump administration’s clear effort to gin up a war with Iran.

The MSNBC host laid out a series of attacks in the Middle East that the White House is now blaming on Iran, even though – in some cases – other foreign actors have already claimed credit for them.

“The Trump administration does appear to be trying to create a public justification for us moving toward a war footing with Iran,” Maddow warned, suggesting that the run-up to this potential war is even more “reckless” than the buildup to the war in Iraq.

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In the case of Iran, there appears to be no credible reason why the United States would want to start a war.

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Maddow said:

Now, it may be that they have newly arrived at evidence that allows them to attribute all of these attacks to Iran, even though they’ve never done so before, but prove it. I mean, in the midst of everything else going on, the Trump administration does appear to be trying to create a public justification for us moving toward a war footing with Iran. And it is based on this assertion from the Trump administration that Iran is carrying out this escalating series of violent attacks all over the Middle East including targeting us. And if they are trying to set that as the context, as the justification for whatever it is they want to do to Iran, presumably they will have to actually show some of this evidence, right? They will have to show some of their work as to how they are arriving at these assertions. Right now all the stuff they’re blaming Iran for is stuff that has either been ascribed overtly to other actors or there’s been no public evidence to assert it being attributed to Iran. It does clearly feel like they are trying to start something in terms of a potential war with Iran. How they’re trying to do it I think is setting off alarm bells left, right and center. And I think across the partisan spectrum for reasons that aren’t just because of what happened in 2003 but because they’re even perhaps being more reckless in terms of the way they’re presenting this public information, not even trying to prove what it is they’re asserting.

Trump, not Iran, is the source of the escalation

From day one, Donald Trump has been trying to stir up conflict between the United States and Iran. In recent days, the drumbeat has only grown louder.

While the administration would have you believe that Iran has suddenly become more hostile, the Trump administration has been the source of the escalation.

As The New York Times reported last month, “Intelligence and military officials in Europe as well as in the United States said that over the past year, most aggressive moves have originated not in Tehran, but in Washington — where John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, has prodded President Trump into backing Iran into a corner.”

Ultimately, Donald Trump – a man who campaigned against needless military conflict in the Middle East – appears hungry for a war with Iran.

What we saw today from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is that this administration is ready to start one without presenting any evidence to support it.

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