That was before...
& this was after Trump turned their top general into a tomato omelet.
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Monday, January 6, 2020
Sunday, January 5, 2020
U.S. Killing of Soleimani Leaves Trump ‘Totally Unpredictable’
Had to check twice to make sure this article came from Bloomberg.
Remember this:
They listened to their boss. So instead, for the most part, this article is heaping praise on a Republican... Trump no less! I love it. Although you would barely know Bloomberg was running for president, he has spent $166 million of his own money on his campaign and thus far impacted the Dem race about as much as the NY mayor Warren Wilhelm Jr.
He must have flipped his lid after reading this.
He must have flipped his lid after reading this.
By David Waine
Three years into Donald Trump’s presidency, U.S. allies
That all changed Thursday with Trump’s decision to kill a key Iranian commander in the biggest foreign policy gamble of his time in office.
With the high-stakes drone strike against General Qassem Soleimani, one of Iran’s most venerated leaders, Trump caught Tehran -- and the rest of the world -- by surprise, restoring a sense of unpredictability that could play to his advantage as world leaders are left wondering what his endgame is in the Middle East and beyond.
“The Americans are now totally unpredictable,” Gerard Araud, a former French ambassador to the U.S. and drone
The drone strike shatters an assumption -- often repeated by Western officials in anonymous briefings -- that Trump would do his utmost to avoid war during an election year. Yet the move may only reinforce the determination of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un
Since entering the White House in 2017 without previous experience in government, Trump built mired
After almost three years of Trump badgering NATO allies on matters such as defense spending and praising autocrats like Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Kim -- who the president said he “fell in love” with -- world leaders started to think they knew how to read the former New York real estate developer.
That’s gone now, probably permanently.
Holding Back
Even as the U.S. blamed sanctions
At the same time, he sought to pull some troops from Afghanistan and withdraw most forces from northern Syria. Since then, though, Trump has actually sent more forces to the Mideast -- more than 17,000 since May, including about 3,500 this week alone.
The strike at the Baghdad airport late on Thursday came together swiftly after the death of an American contractor in a Dec. 27 rocket attack by an Iranian-backed militia against a U.S. base
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif quickly vowed payback for the killing of Soleimani, saying the Islamic Republic’s response to America’s “cowardly terrorism” will come “at any time and by any means.”
Yet Trump’s willingness to risk an escalation in an already volatile region gives foes red
Risk Tolerance
“What we have seen over the course of the past 24 hours, or, more arguably, over the course of the past week, is a newfound tolerance which
Trump defended his strike on Friday, arguing that Soleimani was planning “imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel.”
“We caught him in the act and terminated him,” he said, adding that the U.S. doesn’t
“We take comfort in knowing that his reign of terror is over.”—
In remarks made at Mar-a-Lago, Trump said that the drone strike killing Qassem Soleimani is something that “should’ve been done long ago” pic.twitter.com/nQD6tc79TXby Bloomberg (@QuickTake) January 3, 2020 QuickTake
Trump’s move catches Iran at its weakest point in years, with the regime’s economy crushed under the weight of U.S. sanctions with interests Araud
“The Islamic Republic is a battered regime, beset by protests at home and abroad,” he wrote. Since Trump “withdrew from the Iran nuclear agreement and reimposed sanctions, Iran’s economy has essentially collapsed,” he said, adding that “Iran is not in a position to go to war with the United States, and is likely not capable of mounting effective asymmetric attacks on U.S. positions
That doesn’t mean Iran will back down. Allies largely sided with the U.S. on maximum campaign they
Juergen Hardt, foreign policy spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s political bloc, said the targeted strike won’t cow Iran, risking an “asymmetric Iranian retaliation and a new wave of violence.” U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab joined other world leaders in calling for de-escalation.
“Frankly, the Europeans haven’t been as helpful as I wish that they could be,” Secretary of State Michael Pompeo told Sean Hannity of Fox News on Friday. “The Brits, the French, the Germans all need to understand that what we did, what the Americans did, saved lives in Europe as well.”
How the conflict evolves will depend as much on the credibility of the U.S.’s threats as it will on its ability to leverage economic and military superiority to achieve diplomatic results, the diplomats and analysts said. Yet Trump’s previous unpredictability cost him in the diplomatic sphere, angering allies such as France with his abrupt plan to pull out of Syria and undermining support for a U. .
“One problem the United States has had in the Middle East is that it’s often acted in disregard for allies, snubbed allies, and that could be quite costly as the United States is upping the confrontation with Iran,” said Dan Byman, vice dean for undergraduate affairs at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service and a professor in its Security Studies Program.
Saturday, January 4, 2020
Protests planned across US to condemn Trump administration actions in Iraq, Iran
Their hatred of Trump has not only blinded
Regional analysts considered Soleimani to be the second-most-powerful leader in Iran, after only Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The U.S. has ...
This meme I posted some time ago is becoming more and more relevant every day.
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CHICAGO – More than 70 demonstrations were planned across the U.S. on
The protests are being spearheaded by Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, a U. . withdraw
Demonstrations were expected to happen outside the White House, in New York City's Times Square and more. Actress Jane Fonda, who has been organizing weekly protests against political inaction on climate change, was expected to join the demonstration in D.C.
An international protest is expected at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.
"The targeted assassination and murder of a central leader of Iran is designed to initiate a new war. Unless the people of the United States rise up and stop it, this war will engulf the whole region and could quickly turn into a global conflict of unpredictable scope and potentially the gravest consequences," ANSWER said on its website.
The Pentagon launched an airstrike
President Donald Trump has denied accusations that the assassination was designed to start a war with Iran. "We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war," he said Friday.
Some demonstrations against U.S. actions
Kole Oakes, candidate member with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, said the Memphis protests had already been planned due to the siege of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. However, they took on a new sense of urgency when a U.S. airstrike
"We’re hoping to convey that the Iraqi people, the Irani people are not our enemies, that they are our brothers and sisters in the struggle and it is the imperialist capitalist system that is our enemy," Oakes said.
Organizers could not say how many people were expected to attend the protests Saturday, but Facebook events suggest that hundreds of people planned to participate. More than 1,500 people indicated interest in Facebook events for protests in Chicago and San Francisco, along with nearly 700 people for protests in Madison, Wisconsin, and in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
"We’re having the protest to say no to war and to bring the troops home from Iraq," said Anamaria Meneses, an organizer with the Justice Center en El Barrio, ANSWER's New York City branch. "Our tax dollars shouldn’t be spent on killing people abroad. We should stand against senseless wars."
The ANSWER coalition formed in the wake of 9/11, organizing demonstrations against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that drew hundreds of thousands of protesters. While it has since led some of the biggest and most successful protests in the U.S., the coalition is not without its critics. Some groups have accused the coalition of supporting anti-Semitism; others have scrutinized its approach to supporting the rights of undocumented immigrants.
The protests come after several days of escalating tensions between the U.S. and
Democrats warn against 'march' to war:
It's also the latest in a broader beef between the two nations, including President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear pact in 2018 and subsequent sanctions he
Thousands of Iranians protested against the U.S. airstrike
WOW surprised USA TODAY would admit that!
Michael Pregent: Trump confronts Iran with strength – Obama showed weakness and Iran became more dangerous
Barry capitulated so much on the Iranian Nuke Deal Khamenei still has sucker bites on his ass.
Trump's tatics ... how can I say... are a little different.
A giant question mark hangs over the Middle East as the world waits to see what action Iran will take to retaliate for the long-overdue killing Friday morning of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike ordered by President Trump.
President Trump made the right decision in ordering Soleimani killed in Iraq. I’ve been arguing for four years that we ought to take out this dangerous enemy of the United States, who was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans and wanted to kill many more. Thankfully, his killing days are over.
Since the Iranian terrorist general was planning more attacks on Americans, Trump was left with a stark choice: kill Soleimani now or wait for Soleimani to kill many more Americans in the future. Like every nation, America has the right – indeed, the obligation – to defend itself against its enemies.
Trump has done what President Obama should have done years ago. But Obama was so determined to reach a nuclear deal with Iran that he quite literally let Iran get away with murder with its own forces and the terrorist groups it supported.
The Iranian regime respects strength. Weakness only encourages Iran’s leaders to engage in more terrorism and killing. While the U.S. attack Friday certainly angered the regime, it must have also given Iran’s leaders newfound respect for Trump and for the United States.
-------------------
[Imagine you're Khamenei. You would have to be wondering...
The drone was circling around waiting for Soleimani's plane to land. How did they know he was on the plane??? They even had the restraint, waiting until he was clear of the airport to kill him so there were no additional casualties. Am I in Trump's crosshairs right now? Does he know my every move? Can he pull the trigger when he chooses?]
BTW... Wonder what Khamenei's pal Kim Jong-un is thinking?
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We don’t know what Iran or one of its proxy militias will do next. They could attack U.S. forces or civilians in the Middle East or elsewhere, attack Israel, strike out at shipping in the Persian Gulf, take action against Saudi Arabia, engage in cyberwarfare against American targets, or take any number of other hostile actions.
The Iranians and their militia allies might also try to kidnap Americans and hold them for ransom – a favorite terrorist tactic. This explains why the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad urged all Americans Friday to leave Iraq – a prudent step.
But whatever they do, top Iranian officials have stated clearly that they will strike somewhere, at a time and method of their choosing.
Most importantly, we don’t know if Iran’s next move will set off a chain reaction of attacks and counterattacks that will subside after a short time or lead to what President Trump has called “endless wars” – like the war that continues to rage in Afghanistan, 18 years after the U.S. invaded that country following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Iranian leaders clearly feel obligated to do something to strike at the U.S. to avoid looking weak, but I’d be surprised if this escalates into a full-scale U. S. -Iran war. Iran went through a long a destructive war with Iraq from 1980 to 1988 – and American forces are lot more powerful than those of Iraq back then. Leaders of Iran don’t want to go through that kind of nightmare again.
The killing of Soleimani – who commanded the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – unquestionably strikes a serious blow to Iran’s efforts to extend its influence in Iraq and throughout the Middle East through terrorism and other military actions.
The U.S. has designated the Quds Force as a terrorist organization, making Soleimani one of the top terrorist leaders in the world. While no one is irreplaceable, terrorist leaders are not interchangeable – some are more effective than others. Soleimani was clearly one of the most dangerous and effective.
Past targeted U.S. killings of terrorist leaders have hurt their organizations, but there has always been a new leader to take over. This happened when the U.S. killed Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden and Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. It also happened most recently when U.S. forces attacked ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and he committed suicide when he was cornered.
The death of Soleimani now offers a great opportunity for Iraqis to push back against Iranian influence in their country. The remaining Islamic Revolutionary Guards-Quds Force militia commanders in Iraq are not as confident as they were with Soleimani standing next to them taking selfies. Soleimani was their muscle and their credibility. But no more.
The terrorist general’s death also creates an opportunity for those in the Iraqi government and the Iraqi Security Forces who feared Soleimani and Kataib Hezbollah terrorist militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was also killed in the U.S. drone strike Friday. Now the Iraqis can push back and go after the remaining militia leaders like Hadi Al-Amiri and Qays Khazali.
The strength of the pro-Iranian militia leaders came from Soleimani and al-Muhandis. The skills of the remaining militia leaders pale in comparison.
If Iraqi leaders want to rid their country of Iran’s malign influence, now is the time to arrest Al-Amiri and Khazali and make clear there is no place in Iraq for militia leaders who kill innocent civilians.
By boldly attacking Soleimani and al-Muhandis and several other terrorists gathered with them, President Trump made it clear to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that the U.S. is not afraid of him and his brutal regime. Khamenei must now realize that no one in his government is safe from the U.S. if Iran continues its role as the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.
That’s a very positive development for the Middle East, for the U.S. and for the world.
Michael Pregent is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a terrorism expert for the National Defense University. He is a former Army intelligence soldier and later worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Paul Krugman... a purported economic genius
Columnist for The New York Times (That's probably all you needed to know right there.)
Alma mater Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BA)
Yale University (PhD)
Centenary Professor at the London School of Economics.
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
Is among the most influential economists in the world.
And yet after all these accolades...
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