Unhinged President Trump Rages, Threatens War Crimes
Qassem Soleimani, leader of the foreign wing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was killed at Baghdad’s international airport by one of four guided missiles fired by a Reaper drone.
This was kind of a big deal of the sort that led political observers to talk about a serious escalation of hostilities in the Middle East. Now, it's getting serious, with the President of the United States of America threatening acts considered by our own military to be war crimes.
From the New York Times:
In Iran, the ayatollah vowed “forceful revenge” as the country mourned the death of General Suleimani.
In Palm Beach, Fla., Mr. Trump lashed back, promising to strike 52 sites across Iran — representing the number of American hostages taken by Iran in 1979 — if Iran attacked Americans or American interests. On Saturday night, Mr. Trump warned on Twitter that some sites were “at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD.”
The website of the American Red Cross notes that the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their additional protocols, ratified by scores of nations in recent years, states that “cultural objects and places of worship” may not be attacked and outlaws “indiscriminate attacks on civilian populations.”
https://twitter.com/IRHotTakes/status/1213617064667176962?s=20
“The response for sure will be military and against military sites,” Hossein Dehghan, the military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said in an interview with CNN. “The only thing that can end this period of war is for the Americans to receive a blow that is equal to the blow they have inflicted."
***
It should surprise nobody that the command to do the initial deed came as an impulsive reaction to unhappy news by President Trump.
Following an attack at an Iraqi base which killed an American contractor on December 27, President Trump was presented a menu of options for how to retaliate. He opted for authorizing December 29 air strikes on the positions of an Iranian-backed militia.
Killing General Suleimani was the “far out option” on the list of actions, one that both the Bush and Obama administrations had passed up because of the uncertainty of how forces aligned with Iran would react.
A protest at the gates of the American embassy in Baghdad on New Year’s eve turned ugly, with participants aligned with Shiite militia groups chanting "Death to America" getting past the perimeter of the facility as U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces stood by and did nothing.
Graffiti scrawled on the embassy walls signaled allegiance to Iran: the names of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani.
The militants left the embassy after being promised that the legislature would vote on revoking the legal cover for 5,200 US troops to deploy in Iraq. In the wake of what’s happened since, I’d say the odds are good that lawmakers will demand the departure of the remaining US troops.
From the Washington Post:
Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi told parliament that Iraq's government must establish a timetable for the withdrawal of all foreign troops "for the sake of our national sovereignty." His recommendation follows a U.S. strike that killed Iran's Quds Force commander, Qasem Soleimani, and a key Iraqi leader of Iran-backed militias. "What happened was a political assassination," Mahdi said of the strike. "Iraq cannot accept this."
At the point where the President changed his mind about what action was necessary, the American intelligence did not know the location of Soleimani. They scrambled to locate him, according to an official speaking off-the-record to New York Times correspondent Rukmini Callimachi.
I’ve had a chance to check in with sources, including two US officials who had intelligence briefings after the strike on Suleimani. Here is what I’ve learned. According to them, the evidence suggesting there was to be an imminent attack on American targets is “razor thin”.
In fact the evidence pointing to that came as three discrete facts: a) A pattern of travel showing Suleimani was in Syria, Lebanon & Iraq to meet with Shia proxies known to have an offensive position to the US. (As one source said that’s just “business as usual” for Suleimani)
More intriguing was b) information indicating Suleimani sought the Supreme Leader’s approval for an operation. He was told to come to Tehran for consultation and further guidance, suggesting the operation was a big deal - but again this could be anything.
And finally, a) and b) were read in the context of c) Iran’s increasingly bellicose position towards American interests in Iraq, including the attack that killed a U.S. contractor and the recent protest outside the American embassy.
But as one source put it a) + b) + c) is hardly evidence of an imminent attack on American interests that could kill hundreds, as the White House has since claimed. The official describes the reading of the intelligence as an illogical leap.
https://twitter.com/Bellatrixx2020/status/1213799195292962816?s=20
Having made his decision to strike at the Qud commander, President Trump could hardly keep his mouth shut.
According to various reports, the Russians knew the strike was coming. So did the Israelis. Eric Trump tweeted and deleted words making it seem like he knew. Senator Lindsey Graham says he heard about it while playing golf with the President.
In the five days prior to launching a strike that killed Iran’s most important military leader, Donald Trump roamed the halls of Mar-a-Lago, his private resort in Florida, and started dropping hints to close associates and club-goers that something huge was coming.
According to three people who’ve been at the president’s Palm Beach club over the past several days, Trump began telling friends and allies hanging at his perennial vacation getaway that he was working on a “big” response to the Iranian regime that they would be hearing or reading about very “soon.”
His comments went beyond the New Year’s Eve tweet he sent out warning of the “big price” Iran would pay for damage to U.S. facilities. Two of these sources tell The Daily Beast that the president specifically mentioned he’d been in close contact with his top national security and military advisers on gaming out options for an aggressive action that could quickly materialize.
Do you know who wasn’t in on the plans? Elected officials with national security oversight in the United States Congress. And that was apparently okay with Trump, as he signaled approval of a Tweet from convicted felon Dinesh D’Souza:
President Trump on Friday endorsed a tweet comparing the top Senate Democrat to Iran, the United States’ longtime adversary, suggesting neither could be trusted, as Democratic leaders criticized the White House for ordering a military strike to kill a powerful Iranian commander without congressional input.
Amid a flurry of reactions from U.S. lawmakers, Trump retweeted conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza, who, in response to a headline about Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) not receiving advance notice of the military operation, wrote: “Neither were the Iranians, and for pretty much the same reason.”
Congress was formally notified late in the day on Saturday. The entire document is classified.
Gone are the days when the US was able to suggest that the world was supportive:
https://twitter.com/briantylercohen/status/1213503027807567872?s=20
***
In so many ways this latest caper from the administration is reminiscent of the run up to the US invasion of Iraq.
A procession of chicken hawks have been paraded on cable network news shows spewing improbable stories to make America feel good about getting ready for war.
They’ve even gone so far as to repeat their fantasies about how military strikes will be received by the people being victimized.
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1213119541817028608?s=20
Vice President Mike Pence inaccurately invoked 9/11 as justification for the military strikes.
The New York Times gently suggested suggested Pence was wrong.
In a series of tweets on Friday defending President Trump’s decision to authorize the drone strike that killed Iran’s top intelligence commander, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, Vice President Mike Pence reeled off a list of some of General Suleimani’s most notorious attacks and machinations. Mr. Pence described “an evil man” who had threatened American national security interests for decades.
In one of his tweets, Mr. Pence claimed that General Suleimani helped 10 of the men who would go on to carry out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks cross through Iran and enter Afghanistan. That does not match established historical accounts of General Suleimani or public United States intelligence about the hijackers.
As Common Dreams noted:
Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch wrote about the contrast between the Trump administration's sudden escalation in Iran and the run-up to George W. Bush's 2003 invasion of iraq—prior to which the president, his top advisers, and other conservative commentators spent more than a year insisting the U.S. military should defeat Saddam Hussein.
Trump ordered the airstrike that killed Soleimani before "99 percent" of Americans had even heard of the official, wrote Bunch.
"Within minutes, the same people who brought us the endless wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere suddenly showed up on TV to declare [Soleimani] was the worst person in the world," he tweeted.
…
https://twitter.com/MMFlint/status/1213084631530196992?s=20
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Lead image: U.S. Army Paratroopers assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, deploy from Pope Army Airfield, North Carolina, Jan. 1, 2020. (U.S. Army/Capt. Robyn J. Haake)