I do agree with you. But my biggest conclusion is Trump is super smart.
Trump is super smart to play an outsider role because he knows how desperately people looking for an outsider, but at the other hand DNC and Obama were stupid enough to not get it. He is an insider as much as Clinton. But he is way smarter than DNC, Clinton, Obama.
God, I missed Bernie.
Well Obama was smart enough to act an outsider (the "change candidate" to get elected (and then also re-elected), but then also keep the status quo as an insider to keep the job. Hillary couldn't act an outsider to even get elected.
There are the stated reasons why the US government thinks a certain way and there are the real reasons. Saudi Arabia is a big one. I suspect the real reasons is we have oil deals with Saudi Arabia and Iran has oil deals with Russia. Also Iran nationalized US interests in the late 70s with the revolution. The US punished Cuba for the same thing for 50 years (plus the missile crisis). The US isn't altruistic like they want people to believe, the US works aggressively for their own best interests. If they can paint an altruistic face on it, they will.
The US is still can't let go of the cold war mentality, probably justified with Putin. Iran and Saudi Arabia fit into that mentality. Iran and Saudi Arabia are the two powers in the middle east: one is traditionally an ally, one is our adversary's ally.
It's a natural law of geopolitic that the victors of a major conflict split into at least minor adversaries. The victors are the only ones who can threaten each others power and security. We saw this play out after WWII.
Dan Carlin just released an episode where he explores this. I haven't gotten through it yet, but it's very good.
http://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-59-the-destroyer-o...