Like most of you, I had never heard of Gen. Qassem Soleimani before yesterday. I read in the media that he was a bad guy. Maybe he was. Maybe he was just an Iranian patriot. (You know, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. See the entry for Menachem Begin, if you don’t know what I mean.)
The question arises, why take out this guy now? It smells awfully like a “Wag the Dog” scenario.
For better or worse, back in 2011, and 2012, when Obama was running for re-election, Trump tweeted multiple times about how he thought Obama was going to start a war to help his reelection chances, and how that is “what I would do” if Trump were in the same position.
Trump does realize that his tweets are archived, does he not? So, just to review:
- Aside from tweeting about Obama potentially going to war, before he was President, Trump also tweeted about what a terrible deal the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that John Kerry had helped negotiate was, and how he could get a better deal.
- Sure enough, when he was elected President, Trump pulled the United States out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (notwithstanding that the other signatories, including Germany, China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, and even Iran stayed in the deal).
- The Trump administration then reimposed very punitive sanctions on Iran, even while Iran still kept to the terms of the agreement.
- Eventually Iran began to retaliate with actions such as harassing the oil tankers in the straits.
- Now Trump has gone out and assassinated their #1 General, on the eve of his impeachment and right before the actual voting starts.
Coincidence?
BTW, targeting a particular individual is considered to be a war crime under international law.
Pompeo is claiming on behalf of Trump that Soleimani was planning an operation against American diplomats, and that this action was necessary to prevent that action, and therefore not an assassination.
Yeah maybe. Do you trust the Liar-in-Chief and his administration? I don’t.
For those of you who don’t remember the history between the United States and Iran, NPR just put up a story reminding everyone of the 1953 overthrow of the popularly elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, which the CIA happened to engineer. In case you’re wondering, you know, why the Iranian people might have some issues with us.