I am straining to find something comparable to the president's decision to kill Qassem Suleimani via a drone strike against the Baghdad airport earlier today. It's been suggested that this is more significant than the killing of Osama bin Laden.
Suleimani apparently was an astonishingly effective military leader. He is credited with saving the Assad regime in Syria, driving Israel from Lebanon, killing hundreds of Americans in Iraq, turning the tide against ISIS and directing Iranian proxies, including terrorists, throughout the region.
He is said to have had a larger-than-life public persona in Iran, perhaps comparable to how Americans lionized their high-profile generals during World War II.
President Trump, until now known mostly for appeasing foreign strongmen and professing no appetite at all for long-running foreign entanglements, has made a bold and risky stroke which surely will ratchet up tensions and conflict with Iran significantly. And this while facing an impeachment trial and with an election not far away. The president may well have bet his presidency and his legacy on this act.
I see it as an order-of-magnitude escalation of his favorite tactic, "distract and deflect". As one commenter said, "Iran will never be able to find another radical Shia general who wants to lead attacks against the US and its Sunni allies. Right?" The needle has moved closer to nuclear confrontation because Trump wanted to move the needle away from impeachment.
ReplyDeleteKatherine, I thought the same thing. A dramatic move to change the focus from the impeachment, especially the new evidence (emails). Divert and distract
ReplyDeleteGen. Bonespur said the killing should have "happened a long time ago." Which raises the question: What has Gen. Bonespur been doing for the past five years?
ReplyDeleteI meant "past three years." Senior moment.
DeleteTom, the past three years seems like more than five years. I was talking to one of my sisters the other day, and she said, "Doesn't the time Trump has been in office feel like, a decade?" It wears one out.
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