Yet accurate drone technology hasn't defeated the Taliban nor was it responsible for defeating DAESH.
Iraq will be the frontline but it won't be the only battlefield. Iran's reach through Shia extremist groups is wide. We still have troops in Syria guarding oil fields, troops in Afghanistan and throughout the Gulf. Also there are many Americans throughout the Middle East in places like Jordan, the Gulf States, Egypt and etc.. I know I wouldn't go anywhere near the Middle East after this and would encourage every American there to get out while they can.
Contrary to my normal lefty peacenik opinion, I have to believe there was hard evidence that Soleimani orchestrated the attack on the US Embassy, sovereign American soil. That is an act of war. The US military is not going to let that go unpunished. It was Pear Harbor 2020.
I have no doubt that Soleimani was behind many attacks on the US and US interests. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he was behind the storming of the US embassy. That seems to fit his MO. That still doesn't mean taking him out in this manner was a good idea.
Anyone trust this bozo-in-chief to act rationally and make sound decisions in a world crisis? Anyone?
This. This exact same logic was used to justify the invasion of Iraq. So far it has cost the US six trillion dollars for the war in Iraq. Some estimates have one million dead Iraqis as a result of the war. But Saddam Hussein was a bad man, so all consequences were irrelevant. This same thought process is already being used...... we have learned nothing.
Fair enough on the second point. As for trusting the admin, honestly, it's just a leap of faith. I think back to Fiona Hill: intelligent, competent, and was doing good work for the Trump administration (articles quoted in this forum prior to the scandal - the reason I first got wind of her - and I recall a pro-Trumper or two thumbs upping her, before the scandal lol). So my leap of faith is based on the thought that there are still competent non-political actors working in the administration who have not been caught up in the clown show.
Fair point. Both countries have a lot of things to weigh and hopefully all out war is not the end result.
Don't know about that. There is quite a bit of public evidence, OTOH, that this US administration is eager to stoke conflict with Iran. As background, the protesters at the US Embassy were responding to US airstrikes against Iranian-backed Shia militia groups in Iraq. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/31/world/middleeast/baghdad-protesters-us-embassy.html "The airstrikes targeted an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia, Kataib Hezbollah, which the United States accused of carrying out a missile attack on an Iraqi military base that killed an American contractor and wounded American and Iraqi service members. A spokesman for the militia denied involvement in the attack. But the size of the American response — five strikes in Iraq and Syria that killed two dozen fighters and wounded dozens of others — prompted condemnation from across the political spectrum in Iraq, and accusations that the United States had violated Iraqi sovereignty. It also drew sharp criticism and serious threats of reprisals from Iraq’s Iranian-backed militias. The fact that the Iraqi government permitted militia members to enter the fortified Green Zone on Tuesday, allowing the protest to happen, demonstrated Iran’s powerful influence as well as the government’s difficulty in controlling the militias. But the Iraqi leadership’s success in averting a deeper incursion into the embassy compound and preventing any confrontation with American personnel suggested that the government may have intended to allow the militias to vent their anger with minimal damage." So the US committed an act of aggression in another country, one the politicians there largely condemned, their embassy is attacked by protesters in response, abetted by sympathetic Iraqi security personnel, and you're framing this as an attack on US soil by Iran?
I beg to differ on the "we have learned nothing." Trump's learned something. When faced with impeachment---when Nut Job Giuliani's machinations don't get it done---get into a war with them Ay-rabs (actually, Persians aren't Ay-rabs, but who cares. right?) After all the posturing against wars in the Middle East, after sniping that Obama would start a war in Iran just to get re-elected, look what we got. Trump gets the added benefit of consolidating the evangelical, "might-is-right, Middle East Evil, America Good, Obama born in Africa, Jesus will soon come take those who have found him" voting bloc. Unless the whole thing blows up in his face, which it just might, because Trump is so erratic, egotistical, short-sighted, and impulsive. Amen, bro.
Obama killed a lot of leaders and generals through air strikes/drone strikes .... where’s the right wing acknowledgment of that... Remember how the right bashed Obama for it and #endless wars... failed Hillary strategy.... I wonder what Tulsi thinks about this?
Well said. I spoke out several times against Bush’s adventure in Iraq before it started, and heard much the same jingoistic postering then that I’m seeing now. I’ll repeat what I said then, an old saw that still applies. Wars have unintended consequences. Netanyahu has been pushing us to go to war with Iran. He encouraged the US to dump the nuclear treaty that was helping to stabilize relations with Iran and found a willing fool in trump. Now he’s encouraging trump’s actions that seem designed to pull the US into armed conflict with Iran. I hope it doesn’t happen. At this point, I’m not real optimistic that it won’t.
"Acting" dhs secretary (what are we on now, seventh acting dhs secretary?) says "currently there are no specific, credible threats against our Homeland"...
