Itâs a lot more like the late 30s. Hint: weâre not the good guys this time.
Contra NYTâs reporting, WaPo reports that the Soleimani strike was not some oddball option presented to Trump, but was the result of a months-long effort by Pompeo to get him to do it.
Pompeo had lost a similar high-stakes deliberation last summer when Trump declined to retaliate militarily against Iran after it downed a U.S. surveillance drone, an outcome that left Pompeo âmorose,â according to one U.S. official. But recent changes to Trumpâs national security team and the whims of a president anxious about being viewed as hesitant in the face of Iranian aggression created an opening for Pompeo to press for the kind of action he had been advocating.
The greenlighting of the airstrike near Baghdad airport represents a bureaucratic victory for Pompeo
Edit: Actually reading down further, the WaPo piece agrees with NYT that a number of officials were blindsided by Trump picking that option.
Trumpâs decision to target Soleimani came as a surprise and a shock to some officials briefed on his decision, given the Pentagonâs long-standing concerns about escalation and the presidentâs aversion to using military force against Iran.
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âTaking out Soleimani would not have happened under [former secretary of defense Jim] Mattis,â said a senior administration official who argued that the Mattis Pentagon was risk-averse. âMattis was opposed to all of this. Itâs not a hit on Mattis, itâs just his predisposition. Milley and Esper are different. Now youâve got a cohesive national security team and youâve got a secretary of state and defense secretary whoâve known each other their whole adult lives.â
Reminder that Mattisâs nickname is âMad Dogâ.
Also, WaPo just pissed me off to enough to make what I hope will be a permanent solution to their bullshit. I was unable to copy paste text from the article for some reason. So I installed UR Browser and disabled JavaScript in it. Works fine now. Will use that to read articles from now on.
Countdown until Trump blames Pompeo via tweet for the decision to take out Soleimani? Aka - wasnât my idea!
I was thinking similar but I donât think the Soleimani thing will go obviously wrong in a way that Trump cares about. They love it on Fox.
Especially in the summer.
On their phone app you can select text like normal and thereâs a button at the top within the app to copy to clipboard
Got to admit it is pretty amazing and absolutely the right strategy for them to take.
EZ game: all the US has to do now is assassinate Esmail Qaani.
This is why you donât whack brass until youâre in a full blown war⌠because thereâs always a next man up and at most it buys you a several hour disruption while they straighten out their chain of command. Almost no impact at all on the ground.
Only out of sheerest of curiosity, is this offer open to Americans too?
The problem with this is, the military gets the commitment in the front end, before the debt is accumulated, so wiping out existing debt wouldnât have the effect they say.
Hopefully the Iranians strategy is to hack and release embarrassing trump related stuff about this administrations lack of security concerns and shows the utter chaos of these charletons in the US GOV.
I fear if any US base is hit or attempts that hell will be released on IranâŚ
Unfortunately the General was a hero to too many and I think random attacks are inevitable. Including UK/US targets abroad.
Here you go, SA appealing for calm and against further escalation. On the one hand perhaps this is typical Israeli-style tactics, where itâs always the other side who have to not do things and show restraint or else be branded terrorists, but I donât think so, I donât think SA wants war and I donât think they thought this was particularly sensible. It doesnât weaken Iran particularly - which is always their goal - it just increases the chances SA get involved in a conflict that can hurt them. The more I read about this the more I think the US is just off the reservation, no one thinks theyâre up to anything useful, not even Crown Prince Bone Saw and his lackeys.
âWe are very keen that the situation in the region doesnât escalate any further. Itâs certainly a very dangerous moment and we have to be conscious of the risks and dangers not just to the region but to wider global security,â
âWe hope that all actors take all the steps necessary to prevent any further escalation and any provocation,â he said.
Sorry, I donât want to come across all naive, I should say no other country or ally thinks theyâre up to anything useful.