Iranian General Sulemain and others reported killed in Baghdad airstrike

[Milchshake]

I don't think it's going to work out well for him this time though. The USA is generally quite war-fatigued...

Doesnt matter, it will keep his base excited. All he needs is their votes plus more voter purges of "others" and he's fine.

Also, up until a few weeks ago, the Beltway was postulating that Bolton or "Maddog" Mattis might turn evidence on Trump's corruption.

Trump's adventuring in Iran will probably keep them quiet.

[Skroe]

Doesnt matter, it will keep his base excited. All he needs is their votes plus more voter purges of "others" and he's fine.

Also, up until a few weeks ago, the Beltway was postulating that Bolton or "Maddog" Mattis might turn evidence on Trump's corruption.

Trump's adventuring in Iran will probably keep them quiet.

Nonsense. The base is perpetually excited. That's just a silly "fear".

They were ALWAYS going to turn out in huge numbers in 2020. They turned out in big numbers in 2018 too! It just so happens more people who hated Trump turned out.

The most important thing Democrats can do to beat trump is figure ways to get as many people to turn out in November as possible. If they do that, they'll win big. Don't be overly concerned with the Trumpahdi base. He was always going to engage in some base-stirring mischief later in the year anyway, and how does one makes zealots even more zealoty anyway?

let the get fired up, for all the good it'll do them.

[BronzeCondor]

It's not even about politics right now, this is one of the most dangerous points in time in recent memory. The whole world is watching. Skroe is right, one miscalculation and there's no turning back. Iran has a history of retaliating however it needs to and they are not shy about it. I was surprised Trump had the restraint to not hit back after we lost a Triton, but this needed to happen, at what cost? We'll see.

[Voidwielder]

Bernie Sanders being Bernie, again.

I honestly wish he'd become US President just to see him sign away documents that are clearly and explicitly designed as anti-Iran, anti-Russian and anti-Chinese measures.

[Milchshake]

Nonsense. The base is perpetually excited. That's just a silly "fear".

They were ALWAYS going to turn out in huge numbers in 2020. They turned out in big numbers in 2018 too! It just so happens more people who hated Trump turned out.

The most important thing Democrats can do to beat trump is figure ways to get as many people to turn out in November as possible. If they do that, they'll win big. Don't be overly concerned with the Trumpahdi base. He was always going to engage in some base-stirring mischief later in the year anyway, and how does one makes zealots even more zealoty anyway?

let the get fired up, for all the good it'll do them.

Sorry, but only a foolish person under estimates zealots.

Plus with Conservatives about to purge another 200,000 Wisconsin voters. All they need to do is get this case in front a friendly judge. A zealot Judge maybe?

Your pet project looks for naught.

[eschatological]

As usual, Skroe, you're a bit too neoconservative "global American hegemony." It's never in American interests, imo, to be in direct conflict in the Middle East.

I think it's important to note this dude was on Iraqi soil. There's already authorization for U.S. troops to be in Iraq, and the dude was obviously coordinating attacks on Iraq/U.S. interests in Iraq. So I guess you can justify that there was a reason for use of force in this situation without informing Congress, since Iraq operations are already authorized.

That being said, this guy was part of Iranian political hierarchy. That makes it an assassination by any UN definition, and against our own standing Executive Order against assassination. That is, by far, a big escalation that I don't think was very justified. Political assassination has a tendency to start wars.

If oil prices continue to escalate, China will need to step in, on Iran's side. And then we'll need to step in on the other side, whatever that is, probably Saudi Arabia. And then we're fighting a proxy war in the Middle East. You could argue we've already been doing that for awhile, but now China will have a reason to step in as well.

It's interesting to figure out Russia's role in this. Obviously Russia has ostensibly backed Iran in the past, but Putin has also been pushing Trump's buttons behind the scenes as well. If Russia and China make a play together - ruh roh.

[Stelio Kontos]

I see no issue with mercing Soleimani, the guy had a lot of blood on his hands and the attack on the embassy required a response.

This sort of reminds me of the airstrikes on Libya Reagan launched in 1986. A measured response that avoided destroying an entire country like the US did in Iraq.

I'll be more inclined to support the US as it distances itself from Erdogan and Turkey. There have been promising signs recently regarding some focus shifting from Turkey to Greece and other nations, and the US supporting the joint Greek/Cypriot/Israeli energy alliance, but I'm not gonna hold my breath just yet.

[Lora]

Day 2 of 2020 and world war 3 is fucking trending. Convict the orange fucktard already and get us a new fucking sensible leader (not pence).

[Voidwielder]

I'll be more inclined to support the US as it distances itself from Erdogan and Turkey. There have been promising signs recently regarding some focus shifting from Turkey to Greece and other nations, and the US supporting the joint Greek/Cypriot/Israeli energy alliance, but I'm not gonna hold my breath just yet.

Off-topic but US will never drop Turkey, even if it should. Hell, if Turkey and Greece have yet another war which is more likely to happen than not, I expect US to simply sit it out.

[Skroe]

Oh one more thing.

This is just a friendly reminder that, because evidently the almighty is still looking out for us or something, the US has had an obscenely lucky streak and not had any truly big international crises since 2016 that would require deft leadership by this White House (and I don't just mean Trump, I mean everyone inside the White House). We've had little crisises they've gotten lucky on, or blew but the consequences weren't big. But we've had no real showstoppers. No financial crisis. No Russia invading a country. No Pakistani-Indian nuclear standoff. It's been, historically speaking, pretty tame stuff.

So the consequences for the Trumphadi's having trolled America with their completely out of his league, conspiracy theorist, genuine stupid person President, so far, has been relatively low. The "risk" has been largely theoretical and in terms of national integrity. The worst effects of the Trump administration have been borne by vulnerable people. But to this date, it is not too far to say that if a Democrat gets elected in 2020, the Trump presidency could just be a strange historical detour with few long term consequences to the geopolitical order.

That's the glass-half-full side of things.

Here's the glass-half-empty: every day, we're getting one day closer to when the Trumphadi troll upon America with their meme President isn't "funny" anymore. When the White House will half to take decisive, smart action and show real leadership, and will be shown to be utterly incapable of it. And then the real disaster will unfold because it will be Donald Trump in the White House, surrounded by unqualified sycophants, who listen to grifters like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson on Fox News to get ratings and grift the elderly and the country bumpkins. That's when the consequences move from the relatively low, to the meaningful.

Is this the crisis that ends America's lucky streak? Could be. Might not. Hard to say. But that day is coming. It might be this. It might be when Russia tried to invade Estonia or annex Belarus. It might be when China tries it's own analog of "the Invasion of Panama" somewhere in East Asia in order to test-drive their new modern military (which is coming). It might be a major terrorist attack, a natural disaster, a war between two other countries, or a financial crisis. Who knows.

But the day is coming.

Donald Trump should never have been President and incidents like this just illustrate that we've been damn lucky that he hasn't been a position thus far to fuck up something so completely that it turns US security inside out and gets a lot of people killed.

And hopefully, this isn't the one.

[Stelio Kontos]

Off-topic but US will never drop Turkey, even if it should. Hell, if Turkey and Greece have yet another war which is more likely to happen than not, I expect US to simply sit it out.

Yeah, I still think at this point the US would support Turkey even if their tanks rolled deeper into the Balkans, or they started illegally occupying Aegean islands. But the relations with Turkey are worse than they've been in decades, so there's a glimmer of hope we wouldn't be thrown into the furnace by the Turks.

I should clarify, I'm given optimism seeing how the US military seems to be souring on the Turks. The administration, however, green-lit them to go in and ethnically cleanse the West's Kurdish allies.

[Cizr]

Why is Orange Man bad again? Because he killed a guy who killed hundreds of US citizens and wanted to kill more ? Reminds me when they were crying about death of ISIS leader.

[nonameelf]

Why is Orange Man bad again? Because he killed a guy who killed hundreds of US citizens and wanted to kill more ? Reminds me when they were crying about death of ISIS leader.

Yeah, why don't we just assassinate every world leader we don't like!? Clearly that will never ever have negative repercussions on the US.

[Skroe]

As usual, Skroe, you're a bit too neoconservative "global American hegemony." It's never in American interests, imo, to be in direct conflict in the Middle East.

I mean, you have to choose ultimately. The US either needs to have a large presence and through sheer weight of forces in the region, create reality. Or it needs to rely on regional partners and periodically do something decisive to shape reality. The us spent over 25 years doing the former. For the last five years it's been doing the latter. There has to be one or the other.

Letting an Iranian-backed force attack an embassy slide? That cannot happen. That was escalatory in and of itself. The Iranians bought this, in full.

I think it's important to note this dude was on Iraqi soil. There's already authorization for U.S. troops to be in Iraq, and the dude was obviously coordinating attacks on Iraq/U.S. interests in Iraq. So I guess you can justify that there was a reason for use of force in this situation without informing Congress, since Iraq operations are already authorized.

Yes, that's probably the legal justification.

That being said, this guy was part of Iranian political hierarchy. That makes it an assassination by any UN definition, and against our own standing Executive Order against assassination. That is, by far, a big escalation that I don't think was very justified. Political assassination has a tendency to start wars.

My guess is that with Quuds Force named as a terrorist group, killing him is akin to killing a terrorist leader in the eyes of the law, not a uniformed military leader. It's an interesting question what the priority is.

The US has long since abandoned it's executive order on assassinations in any even though. It tried to kill Saddam (Shock and Awe). It tried to kill Gadaffi, only miss, but it drove him out of his vehicle and let the militias finish the job.

If oil prices continue to escalate, China will need to step in, on Iran's side. And then we'll need to step in on the other side, whatever that is, probably Saudi Arabia. And then we're fighting a proxy war in the Middle East. You could argue we've already been doing that for awhile, but now China will have a reason to step in as well.

Overblown. China doesn't have the expeditionary capability to do anything in the region (yet).

It's interesting to figure out Russia's role in this. Obviously Russia has ostensibly backed Iran in the past, but Putin has also been pushing Trump's buttons behind the scenes as well. If Russia and China make a play together - ruh roh.

I doubt Putin played a role in this. US military leaders have wanted Sulemain dead for years, if only to avenge US troops maimed and killed by Quuds force and Iranian-backed militias during the Iraq War.

You could even say they were looking for an excuse.

- - - Updated - - -

Sorry, but only a foolish person under estimates zealots.

Plus with Conservatives about to purge another 200,000 Wisconsin voters. All they need to do is get this case in front a friendly judge. A zealot Judge maybe?

Your pet project looks for naught.

Nah I don't think so at all. And I'm certainly not under-estimating them. But it's foolish to fear them.

We have their number.

[starlord]

Why is Orange Man bad again? Because he killed a guy who killed hundreds of US citizens and wanted to kill more ? Reminds me when they were crying about death of ISIS leader.

are you gonna die for orange man?
silly question, you aren't even from the US.

[Cizr]

Yeah, why don't we just assassinate every world leader we don't like!? Clearly that will never ever have negative repercussions on the US.

"Killing terrorists is bad" - Nelinrah, 2020


Why are you defending him and his fellow terrorists from Hezbollah who died there?

Infracted - Don't intentionally misconstrue another poster

[Somewhatconcerned]

Why is Orange Man bad again? Because he killed a guy who killed hundreds of US citizens and wanted to kill more ? Reminds me when they were crying about death of ISIS leader.

Or when they swore he would start WWIII with NK, or that he would tank the economy, or that he would put American minorities in concentration camps, etc etc etc. I'm sure they'll be wrong about this one, too.

[Cizr]

are you gonna die for orange man?
silly question, you aren't even from the US.

You answered it yourself.

Explain to me why killing someone who wants to kill your people and already did in the past is bad? Surely you are not biased just because he was killed while Trump is president, right ?

[nonameelf]

"Killing terrorists is bad" - Nelinrah, 2020


Why are you defending him and his fellow terrorists from Hezbollah who died there?

The US does the same exact shit Iran does. Doesn't that mean the US is terrorists? Shouldn't Iran be free to bomb US leaders because they're terrorists?

[Skroe]

The US does the same exact shit Iran does. Doesn't that mean the US is terrorists? Shouldn't Iran be free to bomb US leaders because they're terrorists?

The US most certainly does not do the exact shit Iran does. That's an old internet B.S. false equivalency.

But honestly, I've seen it for so many years, maybe we should.