Seven months ago Trump was running around saying things like:
And when they signed that deal they were screaming death to America. You remember? Death to America. How do you sign a deal when they’re screaming death to America? They don’t talk that way, anymore, they’re not talking that way anymore. They better not be talking that way.
Iraqi casualties confirmed at Ain al-Asad. Note that while people call these “US bases”, they’re actually Iraqi bases with US soldiers onsite. Most of the soldiers there are Iraqi. Still no US casualties.
Hopefully Trump comes out and spins this as “lol Iran, shot back and didn’t hit anything” and that’s the end of it. Seems it could plausibly go that way.
Holy shit, wow, looks like this is the end of it ??
All is well! Missiles launched from Iran at two military bases located in Iraq. Assessment of casualties & damages taking place now. So far, so good! We have the most powerful and well equipped military anywhere in the world, by far! I will be making a statement tomorrow morning.
So basically, the US, an ally of Iraq, assassinated an Iranian leader on Iraqi soil. There were Iraqis killed as collateral damage.
Then Iran, also a semi-ally of Iraq retaliated against the US on Iraqi soil. No Americans killed, but Iraqis were killed.
The USA and Iran appear to be preparing to de-escalate, assuming that Trump has a pleasant morning tomorrow. Meanwhile, Iraq just gets totally crapped all over by both sides.
The likely end result will be the Iraqis trying to get the USA out of Iraq, and China/Russia stepping in to fill the void.
So we basically traded Soleimani’s life for our strategic position in the Middle East.
Brilliant!
But it actually was a brilliant outcome, for Trump. He will campaign on being the ONLY ONE who had the guts to kill Soleimani, and then brag about being the ONLY ONE to be able to get out of Iraq, too. Then Putin will funnel him some money and pat him on the back for a job well done in the Middle East.
I don’t see how Trump can make all those threats about if there is any Iranian retaliation. And then Iran retaliates by launching missiles from Iranian soil at US targets. And somehow that is the end of it. I mean this country would be in a meltdown screaming about the epic pink panty waist liberals if a democrat did this.
But then again it seems I no longer understand the world.
This will be a huge win for Trump, just you wait and see. He will spin it to his base, and they’re all brainwashed anyway. Fox News and the right wing media will spin it for him, so that’ll be fine. The GOP will brag that he killed Soleimani with no tangible retaliation because Iran was so scared of the strong Republican President unlike that wuss Obama, who cut a lousy deal… and Iran will now respect America again.
Moderates will be like, “SEE??? HE DIDN’T GET US INTO WAR!”
Then the NYT will write another Donald the Dove article and discuss whether his foreign policy was the best ever or just the best since Reagan.
Low information voters will be like, “Huh? We almost got into a war? Yeah, whatever, let me know if we actually do.”
Then Democrats will go all, “BUT, ACTUALLY…”
That’ll be the moment the Democrats lose the issue, if you’re wondering.
Sadly you’re 100% right. And meanwhile Iran and North Korea are busy and unfettered working on those nukes and US standing in the world is further compromised.
The fact that he tweeted “all is well” when assessment of casualties is “taking place now” makes me think that maybe Iran did give the US a back-channel warning of the strikes. Is even Donny thick enough to tweet that when he doesn’t yet know if any Americans were killed? IDK, maybe.