The same NY Times which was never particularly concerned with Obama’s use of force against Islamic jihadis throughout the Eastern world nor in Libya is Very Concerned with Trump ordering a strike against an Iranian responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans
Congress, Stop President Trump’s Rush to War With Iran
President Trump must doubt his administration’s own claims that it has deterred Iranian threats.
“Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets,†Mr. Trump tweeted on Saturday, “we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some 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 USA wants no more threats!â€
The threat came after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, vowed “forceful revenge†for an American drone strike early Friday that killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, a top Iranian military commander, after, the White House claims, the general prepared attacks on American interests.
Why was Mr. Trump’s threat on Twitter even necessary? Wasn’t the death of General Suleimani supposed to have stopped the threats the president now claims America still faces? Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, defended the attack on Friday by saying, “It was time to take this action so that we could disrupt this plot, deter further aggression from Qassim Suleimani and the Iranian regime, as well as to attempt to de-escalate the situation.â€
If you’re guessing that the piece is all about slamming President Trump and not Iran for their actions against Americans, you’d be correct.
What’s even more troubling is that the administration is not seeking sensible advice elsewhere. It didn’t notify leaders from either party in Congress before the drone strike, although on Saturday the White House did notify at least some senior leaders, as required by the War Powers Act.
The Executive Office doesn’t need to notify anyone in the Legislative Branch prior to action: it’s called the Constitution. Look it up. But, the Times Editorial Board really, really wants legislation passed that would limit Trump’s march to war. And to protect Iran. Meanwhile, they run an opinion piece by Azadeh Moaveni, who is a senior gender analyst with the International Crisis Group, whatever that means. Oh, it should be noted that the International Crisis Group is yet another group funded by George Soros, and has consistently taken the side of Islamist groups, Palestinians, Iran, and been against American and Israel
Mourning Is Iran’s First Act of Retaliation
The last time I wrote seriously about a war with Iran was in 2012. It had been an especially fraught year, with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards running naval exercises in the Persian Gulf, Israel and the United States conducting joint drills, and the safety of oil shipping lanes looking entirely unassured. Oil prices rattled skittishly, everyone suddenly monitored ships, and headlines speculated that Israel might attack Iran’s nuclear sites.
My assignment was to consider “the day after†— to imagine how Iranians would react if their country was bombed by Israel. My piece featured scenes of distraught young people gathering on crowded intersections singing the national anthem — suddenly everyone a terrified Iranian citizen rather than an aspiring guitarist or a day laborer or whatever they were the day before — and a screaming mother buying formula to stockpile from a supermarket. I don’t even remember writing it. How many times can you write, predict and analyze your country’s destruction before your mind begins to dissolve the traces?
“Her country” seems to be Iran, even though her parents escaped from it during the 1979 revolution, with the U.S. taking them in. Her writing seems to suggest that Israel is always the bad guy. She goes on to paint the U.S. as the bad guy since the U.S. back coup in 1953. She also seems happy that Iran started retaliating in the 1980’s.
Many consider [General Suleimani] responsible for the deaths of thousands, for his intervention in salvaging Bashar al-Assad’s rule in Syria. But to many Iranians, Iraqis, Kurds and others, he was a pivotal figure in vanquishing the Islamic State, helping repel its rapid march across Iraq in 2014. In Syria, for the many Syrians who endured the industrial-scale brutality of the Assad regime, the general led what could only be understood as an offensive force. But Iran’s leaders always reminded their people that Syria, the lone Arab country that sided with Iran during the eight-year Iran-Iraq War, could not be abandoned, that without it, Iran would be vastly more vulnerable in the region.
It is for these maneuvers, in part to provide Iran some deterrence against relentless American hostility, that General Suleimani is remembered. He had become a patriarch for an ambivalent country adrift, forgiven, at least by the hundreds of thousands who turned out for his funeral, for the hard excesses of the force he commanded because he secured the land in a time of the Islamic State’s butchery, seen as a man of honor and merit among political contemporaries who were usually neither. (Of course, he certainly did not impress all Iranians in this way; he had detractors who did not support his regional stratagems.)
This is what you get when a media outlet, one of the biggest in the world, is so deranged over President Trump that they have an Iranian regime apologist run an opinion piece saying how great a guy who killed hundreds of Americans is.
I remember as a child, during the years of war with Iraq, my mother telling me about relatives in Iran who gave away their jewelry to aid the war effort. This time, in the face of President Trump’s tweets threatening to attack Iran and destroy its sites of cultural heritage, I needn’t conjure the unity that comes the day after. The country has gathered to mourn. It is already here.
If she loves Iran so much she should move there. And the NY Times has just become a mouthpiece for Iran.
Good job, Don.
….the ISIS fight is taking a bit of a backseat. The resolution, which gives no timetable for the end of the presence of foreign troops, was approved on the same day as the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq and Syria announced that it was halting its campaign against ISIS in order to protect bases and troops from any retaliation for Soleimani’s killing. The coalition is pausing its training missions due to “repeated rocket attacks over the last two months†that require troops to refocus their energies on protecting bases from attack. “We remain resolute as partners of the government of Iraq and the Iraqi people that have welcomed us into their country to help defeat ISIS,†the statement said.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/01/iraqi-lawmakers-vote-expel-foreign-troops-anti-isis-coalition-suspends-operations.html
Our troops in the middle east, there to defeat jihadists (esp. ISIL), are forced to hunker down. So if they can’t perform what they were sent to do, why are they there?
What’s the plan, Don? What’s the plan?
The plan ELWOOD is to get the fuk out of the middle east. That has always been trumps goal. He is now forcing congress to help him.
How you ask?
Senate Democrats are seeking to curb President Trump’s war powers in retaliation for his initiation of the drone strike that killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.
Sen. Dick Durbin and Sen. Tim Kaine are cosponsoring a resolution that would force the administration to withdraw all troops from Iran, unless Congress itself declares war.
“I will file a resolution, pursuant to the War Powers Act of 1974, to try to force Congress to have a debate about whether or not it is in the United States’ best interest to be in a war with Iran,†stated Durbin. “We can’t let the president make this decision on his own.â€
and now we have people marching in the streets against the Middle East once again. showing their support for Muslims who are murdering their own and Americans as well. Not to mention others in the region.
Germany, France and the UK came out yesterday strongly in support of Trump and challenging IRAN to back down from their apparent trajectory.
Boris Johnson calls for ‘Trump deal’ to fix Iran nuclear standoff
This article is more than 3 months old
PM says the president could come up with a better pact, in the apparent shift from European position
UK, France Germany blame Iran for Saudi oil attacks
UNFORTUNATELY Americans are not paying attention to what is going on in the world because our wonderful Marxist PRESS is all up in Trumps face over daring to say Joe Biden is corrupt and they must GET TRUMP no matter if the rest of the fuking world is burning.
The Elwoods of the world are the sheeple that bring us to the brink of war. It only takes a tiny push to get us the rest of the way.
How you ask Elwood. Because your posts show you don’t even understand what is and has been going on in the ME since Trump was elected.
Numerous attacks on American bases in Iraq have taken place the last several weeks as Trump tried desperately to refrain from responding while intell gathered the facts. When he finally acted, everyone was shocked out of their mind because.
Its IMPEACH TRUMP ALL DAY EVERYDAY 24×7 in the USA and the world.
You have been seduced if you think trump has a plan to get the US out of the middle east. He careens from thoughtless idea to thoughtless idea, all to satisfy his megalomania.
Andrew O’Hehir:
*the thinking of (the gullible moderates) intersected with the banal Beltway view that Trump could be trained to be “presidential,†or could at any rate be contained or supervised, like a poorly trained Schnauzer, by his initial cadre of generals or a White House staffed with savvy adult insiders or some other clichéd vision of competence. Both approaches rested on contradictory but overlapping assessments of Trump’s character and intentions: On one hand, he was laughably incompetent and could be controlled; on the other, the “Man in the High Castle†vision that Trump imbibed from Steve Bannon, with its promise of a reindustrialized, white-dominated nation pretty much decoupled from the outside world, was something he actually believed in and had thought about.
None of that was true. It should be obvious by now that Trump’s primary concern is his own glorification, and the closest thing he has to a political or social vision is incoherent racist paranoia mingled with fantasies of violent retribution. It might be accurate to say he longs to recreate a world in which America is an unchallenged hegemonic power…
In the words of the poem Trump likes to recite to audiences at his campaign rallies — the only literary work he appears to know well — we knew he was a snake before we took him in.
A push-button assassination that throws the world into chaos, with little thought of what may follow, is not a departure from Trump’s policy vision or a sign that he has been seduced and conquered by the neocons. It’s exactly the kind of thing he’s been longing to do ever since he took office, and now that he’s gotten a taste of it, more will surely follow. Everyone who has normalized him, made excuses for him, laughed at him, pitied him or talked themselves into believing he was a blessing in disguise owns a share of this disaster. I’m pretty sure that’s all of us.*
One mans opinion. John Bolton today said he will testify in Trumps impeachment trial. What does he want in return? He wants Trump to invade Iran. Something he and his neocon buddies have wanted for decades.
Will it happen? What lies will he perpetrate? We know Bolton was the worst decision of Trumps presidency. Hiring a known Bush Crony of which the entire Bush entourage are never trumpers including Bolton was a ludicrous move.
You again forget that Iran was orchestrating attacks on Kurds and Americans as well as hitting Saudia Arabia oil facilities and attacking tankers in the GULF as well as arming dozens of militias around the world.
this is what you defend.
All Bolton said was that, if subpoenaed, he would testify, which would be all he could legally be expected to do.
No sweat.
Unlike Gropin’ Joe, no tough guy malarkey. You get a subpoena, you show up or show up for jail.
As things look now, the issue appears to be moot.
And who, exactly, is Andrew O’Hehir and why should we care what he says?
For that matter, why should we care what you say?
Oh, so now it’s IS that’s the real war on terror. Where have I heard that before?
Oh, yeah, Pelosi Galore and the rest of the Democrats when we went into Iraq and rid the world of a vicious dictator.
And I see you found a piece that says what I noted yesterday. The “resolution” is nothing but hot air.
And I don’t see them hunkering down (a Fake News line if ever there was one), I see them ready to clean out the Iranian militias in Iraq if the mullahs don’t get the message.
And the plan is to force the mullahs to the table or encourage an uprising among the Persians.
Trump beating the Commies at their own game.
You must hate it.
The right-wing’s mantra, Our President – Right or Wrong!, is destructive.
It is not treason to criticize the President, it is patriotic.
The assassination of Suleimani further destabilized an unstable region. Our government has been unable to articulate any reasonable explanation for acting. That he was a bad guy is clear, but not reason enough. There are many “bad hombres” in the world. Putin, Kim, Duterte etc.
Questioning the motives of the US gov’t isn’t the same as supporting Iran.
You feel you have to defend marching in the streets to defend a people who are murdering their own citizens. Murdering Iraqis and Kurds. Suppressing those same PATRIOTIC CITIZENS who are protesting against their own regime???
You feel its patriotic to support A murderous man who murdered 10’s of thousands of innocents for no other reason than to instill a puppet nation in Iraq?
You like the idea that the Radical Muslims hate gays and women and that Cenk Uygar said women are genetically defective and believes in Beastiality? He is of course running as a Democrat in a Deep Blue District in California.
You like the idea that supporting people who hate everything about everything YOU and ME stand for no matter our opposing political views is patriotic?
Its not patriotic. But it is allowed in America. Probably the only nation on earth where these kind of marchs are in fact allowed.
Don’t get all patriotic on us Elwood. There is nothing patriotic about supporting and giving aid and comfort to people who would murder women, children and gays and religious people who are not of their faith and not only would but ARE doing such.
There is nothing good about these radicals and there is nothing good about what they stand for.
Your disdain for all Muslims is noted. It’s easy and satisfying to attribute the behaviors of a few to the whole.
We heathens and traitors appreciate Trump’s forbearance in allowing criticism. Given the chance he’ll eliminate criticism, with your support.
We are not defending terrorist acts, we are not supporting Suleimani, we are defending the US. We should be better than radical terrorists, don’t you think?
The US should not go around the globe willy-nilly assassinating people on a whim.
President Trump’s actions have made America, Americans and the world less safe. The Iranians were cooperating with the details of the “Iran Nuclear Deal”. Up until Trump, Iran’s level of uranium enrichment was 3.67%, not suitable for weapons. Even now they’re still allowing IAEA inspections. Iran announced over the weekend that it would no longer respect limits set on how many centrifuges it can use to enrich uranium. Well done, neoCons, well done.
Your disdain for all Muslims is noted. It’s easy and satisfying to attribute the behaviors of a few to the whole.
Unfortunately, it’s more than a few, especially when we have video of whole villages dancing in the streets after they got the news of 9/11.
Of course, you’re no different. Calling any and all white Conservatives racists and white supremacists.
We heathens and traitors appreciate Trump’s forbearance in allowing criticism. Given the chance he’ll eliminate criticism, with your support.
Kinda doubt it. He is very good at bringing out the worst in you and it’s very much to his political advantage.
.We are not defending terrorist acts, we are not supporting Suleimani, we are defending the US. We should be better than radical terrorists, don’t you think?
You should, but you’re not. And, yes, you do defend the crazies and their acts because Orange Man Bad.
You’ve been doing it since ‘Nam. You were gloating over the weekend about how Iran would dominate the Middle East and how they would murder everyone who supported the US.
You shouldn’t comment when you’re plastered.
The US should not go around the globe willy-nilly assassinating people on a whim.
Hardly a whim and hardly willy-nilly, but you seem to bhave no problem with the crazies doing it.
Of course, they are your allies.
President Trump’s actions have made America, Americans and the world less safe. The Iranians were cooperating with the details of the “Iran Nuclear Dealâ€.
Yeah, they took all that money and poured into destabilizing other countries in the region.
Up until Trump, Iran’s level of uranium enrichment was 3.67%, not suitable for weapons. Even now they’re still allowing IAEA inspections. Iran announced over the weekend that it would no longer respect limits set on how many centrifuges it can use to enrich uranium. Well done, neoCons, well done.
First, you keep talking about neo-cons and you clearly don’t know what it means. The Choom Gang or the Ozark Mafia was far more neo-con than the average Conservative.
And, second, the crazies were no more telling the truth than Saddam about his WMDs.
Third, the announcement was met with an, “Anh”, by the world. Nobody believes Zippy’s bribe (talk about impeachable) was anything more than his try at becoming Khameini’s bathhouse boy.
@Elwood.
Your disdain for ALL AMERICANS is noted. Its easy and satisfying to attribue the behavious of a few to the WHOLE.
No one said you were traitors I said it was not patriotic to defend women haters and gay murdering scum bag RADICAL Muslims.
We are not defending terrorist acts, we are not supporting Suleimani, we are defending the US. We should be better than radical terrorists, don’t you think?
Obama tried that for 8 years. What did it net him? Huh>?
The right-wing’s mantra, Our President – Right or Wrong!, is destructive.
Damn straight! He’s certainly destroying the Left and has the Right squarely behind him.
Your worst nightmare.
It is not treason to criticize the President, it is patriotic.
You mean like that great American, Jean Francois Kerry?
Lurch has turned so many coats, he’s got more of them than Hermann Goering.
The assassination of Suleimani further destabilized an unstable region.
The region is unstable because of Salami and his minions.
Our government has been unable to articulate any reasonable explanation for acting.
Yeah, that attack on the embassy was just a co-incidence. We had the goods on him, but that’s of no consequence. Anything that hurts America is good in your eyes.
That he was a bad guy is clear, but not reason enough. There are many “bad hombres†in the world. Putin, Kim, Duterte etc.
The journey of a thousand miles…, as they say. The hit was just an object lesson.
Trump told the mullahs, you don’t play nice, we can get you, too.
That’s how their pals, the Russkies, play, too.
“The right-wing’s mantra, Our President – Right or Wrong!, is destructive.”
How about the left wing’s mantra , Our President is always wrong? Less destructive?
“It is not treason to criticize the President, it is patriotic.”
Calling the President a “war criminal” for destroying an murdering enemy terrorist and siding with our enemies is ABSOLUTELY unpatriotic. In fact it’s down right
treasonous.
” Questioning the motives of the US gov’t isn’t the same as supporting Iran.”
You aren’t questioning the “motives” of the US gov’t, you’re questioning the act of the US president for killing a foreign terrorist. You’re also saying the assassination of Salami “further destabilized an unstable region” which is poppycock. It’s already unstable, it’s already at war, it’s already full of terrorist attacks and it’s already screaming “Death to America” every five fukin’ minutes. Trumps actions will not affect that in the slightest except that there are a few less murdering mooslems to kill Americans, or don’t you like that?
Is there ever a time or occurrence where you would side with America against the mooslems or the communists? Ever even one?
Trump 2020 Cause more terrorists need killin’.
As seen on Twitter (Razor): Folks clutching their pearls that Trump may be leading us to war were awfully quiet when
Droney McPeaceprize dropped 26,000 bombs in 2016, and had military actions in 7 nations….
Isn’t it funny JI, how all these warhawk leftists suddenly become fukin’ Quakers as soon as a Republican shows the world how it’s done?
Trump 2020 keep killin’ the bad guys Mr. President!
Yes!
Turns out even some members of the Choom Gang even agree with The Donald.
Yesterday there was Jeh (what kind of people name their kid Jeh?) Johnson and today, one of Zippy’s advisors on Iran.
Ray Takeyh said, “Past is often prologue in Iran. When a truculent Ronald Reagan assumed the presidency, Iran hastily released the American diplomats it had held hostage for 444 days. When George W. Bush’s shock and awe campaign quickly displaced the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Iran responded by suspending its nuclear program. The mullahs relish assaulting America but are circumspect when facing a tough-minded, unpredictable president. The Islamic Republic had already pledged to retreat further from its nuclear obligations by next week. A move in that direction seems more likely at this point, as opposed to blowing up American diplomatic and military outposts.
As the commemoration ceremonies begin in Iran, it is important to stress that the imperial edifice that Soleimani built was already stressed. The sanctions reimposed by the Trump administration after its abrogation of the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal have depleted Iran’s economy, calling into question its foreign policy imperatives. In November, Iran was rocked by massive demonstrations as the regime had to curtail its onerous fuel subsidies. An uneasy path lies ahead for the clerical oligarchs. The last thing they need is a costly confrontation with a president willing to do things they once considered unimaginable.”
PS Remember how Baghdadi Bunny told us how the Persians were “united” in their condemnation of the Salami hit?
Well, check it out.
She really shakes it, doesn’t she?
But no evidence to support your false claim, Liar McLickspittle?
LOLGFY
Which claim are we addressing?
Or is this another one of your scattershot accusations that have nothing to do with anything?
If it’s about the belly dancer, you’re the one who told us all Persia was “united” in grief and outrage, and you had no substantiation of that.
At least I have pictures and video of Revolutionary Guards firing on people who refuse to go to the protests.
Prove we typed “all Persia was united in grief and outrage”. It’s been our experience that Con Man commenters here tell many lies.
Any evidence that the twerking girl video was related to the assassination?
Here she is doing the same dance in March 2019. That seems suspicious, doesn’t it?
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=arab+girl+dancing+light+pole&&view=detail&mid=B5EE6DA96A587414C4E6B5EE6DA96A587414C4E6&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Darab%2520girl%2520dancing%2520light%2520pole%26qs%3Dn%26form%3DQBVR%26sp%3D-1%26pq%3Darab%2520girl%2520dancing%2520light%2520pole%26sc%3D0-28%26sk%3D%26cvid%3D5F9AE6D760224134AA45D6B3A74790BC
That the other video was what you claim it is?
Finally, Mr. Research, look up Heshmat Alavi. What if Heshmat Alavi turns out to be an Iranian dissident (MEK) website in Albania?
Prove we typed “all Persia was united in grief and outrageâ€. It’s been our experience that Con Man commenters here tell many lies.
Elwood P. Dowd says:
January 5, 2020 at 9:18 am
Last week, Iranians were protesting AGAINST Iranian leadership. Today they’re united in protesting America, screaming DEATH to America.
Any evidence that the twerking girl video was related to the assassination?
Any evidence it wasn’t? And that was no twerk, you twerp. In any case, it shows not everybody in Iran supports the regime, but I’ll bet she was doing that same belly dance over the weekend.
Finally, Mr. Research, look up Heshmat Alavi. What if Heshmat Alavi turns out to be an Iranian dissident (MEK) website in Albania?
Already did. So? He’s fighting the regime.
That negates nothing.
Envision me giving you the middle finger, Fredo.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mUmE-RzYJIk/XhJHlssgtCI/AAAAAAACHwc/dNI6asZiAj80FeNUGqX3Q0fAldtF-vl1gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/1%2Bghfffghhfgggggggg.png
Why was the dancing girl video posted March 2019 if it just happened?
LOLGFY
Envision the entire world giving trump the middle finger, Cucko.
https://c8.alamy.com/comp/ENC3J3/protesting-crowd-far-left-counter-demonstrators-showing-middle-finger-ENC3J3.jpg
Jeff,
You are amusing. You clearly have no idea as to what is happening in the world and have nothing but lies and unfounded presumptions in your analysis of Trump.
Trump is following the disaster that was Obama. Obama had no international policy other than going around apologizing for imagined wrongs. In international affairs when a country with the power of the US shows such weakness then war is likely to follow. If you had any kind of education or did any reading outside the internet, then you might appreciate this reality. Due to the incompetence of the Democrats, Trump will be readily re-elected and will have a conservative Congress and a court that will be very conservative.
Your comments are only meant to make people and and defensive. Rarely do you have a truthful comment. I do not understand what not you get out of upsetting people. This is the action of a loser. I feel you need professional help.
Israel tosses Trump under the bus…
Netanyahu: “The assassination of Suleimani isn’t an Israeli event but an American event. We were not involved and should not be dragged into it.â€
Sounds more like a criticism of the mullahs’ threats.
Why was the dancing girl video posted March 2019 if it just happened?
Perhaps to show they’re not united in protesting America, screaming DEATH to America, then or now.
Your little lie about how the Persians are united in protesting America, screaming DEATH to America is the real issue. If the Guards are firing on people who don’t want to protest, then clearly you’re lying and you know it.
Salami was the guy in charge of going after the real protesters, so it’s kinda doubtful they’d protest his death.
What really gets to Baghdadi Bunny is that somewhere Smith, Stevens, Woods, and Doherty are smiling and that those 4 good guys will forever have Donald Trump’s back.
Envision the entire world giving trump the middle finger, Cucko.
Envision your limitless spite and envy put on display.
A lot of the world is grateful that Trump did what was necessary and overdue. Hey, even the Nazis were secretly glad Kubis and Gabechik offed Heydrich.
And the word is cuckoo, minimu.
Imagine how grateful the world will be when trump is gone.
The word is Cucko. I just created it, Minimu Covfefe McLickspittle. It means “fat cuck”.
Did you ever find Trump’s MBA?
LOLGFY