Trump Designates Iran's Revolutionary Guards as Terrorists

Donald Trump has announced that the United States now regards Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organization, "marking the first time Washington has formally labeled another country's military a terrorist group."

In a statement, Trump said this unprecedented step, "recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a state sponsor of terrorism, but that the [Iran Revolutionary Guards] IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft."

Critics have warned that the move could open U.S. military and intelligence officials to similar actions by unfriendly governments. The United States has already blacklisted dozens of entities and people for affiliations with the IRGC, but not the organization as a whole.

Experts have said it was unclear how much concrete difference the terrorist designation would make.

We may not know the exact consequences of this action, but what we do know with absolute certainty is that this action is a deliberately provocative move. We also know that National Security Advisor John Bolton is an advocate for war with Iran, having penned in 2015 an op-ed for the New York Times bluntly headlined: "To Stop Iran's Bomb, Bomb Iran."

I'm troubled by this development on its own, but I'm even more uneasy given the global environment in which it's happening: Fascism is on the rise and democracy in decline, Brexit is falling apart, Russia is landing troops in Venezuela, Israel is fixing to annex the West Bank, the U.S. is giving nuclear intel to Saudi Arabia and threatening to shut down our borders, etc.

This is the sort of global whatthefuckery that presaged the two World Wars.

Every bit of unnecessary provocation is setting my teeth on edge. I feel like I am suspended in a perpetual flinch, waiting for the horror that feels increasingly inevitable.

If you feel the same way, you are not alone. If you need to talk about that, this is the place to do it.