Trump Tweets Response to Airstrike on Iran General for Friday’s Open Thread

January 3, 2020 12:44 pm EST Tiff Trump Tweets (Open Thread) 2
Trump Tweets Logo. Image by Lenny Ghoul.

As the News Blender reported on Friday morning at the direction of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, the military targeted and killed Iranian general *Qasem Soleimani, also spelled Qassim Suleimani, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force.

*I’m not exactly sure what is the correct spelling I will be using both*

The President has responded to the military operation issuing 5 tweets on Friday morning.

While the tweet reads as if the President is admitting he failed to negotiate with Iran, since the President does not in fact admit failure he is likely referring to the Iran Deal, that the Obama Administration approved, that President Trump withdrew from.

The Defense Department issued a statement announcing the death of *Soleimani, stating that Soleimani was “actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.”

The statement went on to say, “He had orchestrated attacks on coalition bases in Iraq over the last several months – including the attack on December 27th – culminating in the death and wounding of additional American and Iraqi personnel. General Soleimani also approved the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad that took place this week.”

The strike they say was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans.

The President of Iran Hassan Rouhani vowed revenge on the attack via Twitter.

The New York Times reported that airstrike took place at Baghdad International Airport and was carried out by drone.

Along with the *Suleimani the airstrike killed “several officials from Iraqi militias backed by Tehran when an American MQ-9 Reaper drone fired missiles into a convoy that was leaving the airport.”

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a statement regarding the death calling for three days of mourning before Iran retaliates.

His departure to God does not end his path or his mission, but a forceful revenge awaits the criminals who have his blood and the blood of the other martyrs last night on their hands.

Khamenei via New York Times 1/2, 1/3, 2020.

Fox News correspondent Gillian Turner is reporting via Twitter that Iraq’s Parliament has vowed to remove U.S. presence in Iraq in the wake of the airstrike.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued several tweets regarding the airstrike.

Unless you are murdered by Saudi Arabia or you happen to be U.S. allies, the Kurds. Sorry I know that’s not objective nor is it necessary in this context, but these kinds of statements, “we will protect its people,” bug the crap out of me, when it’s not a blanket protection of U.S. people, instead it’s a lot of pounding the chest and ignoring the real cost of these actions.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) issued a statement regarding the airstrike late Thursday.

American leaders’ highest priority is to protect American lives and interests.  But we cannot put the lives of American servicemembers, diplomats and others further at risk by engaging in provocative and disproportionate actions.  Tonight’s airstrike risks provoking further dangerous escalation of violence.  America – and the world – cannot afford to have tensions escalate to the point of no return.

The Administration has conducted tonight’s strikes in Iraq targeting high-level Iranian military officials and killing Iranian Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani without an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Iran.  Further, this action was taken without the consultation of the Congress.

Speaker.gov. 1/2/2020.

Senator Lindsey Graham told Fox & Friends that he was briefed while he was visiting Florida.

For What It’s Worth.

I could fill the thread with past tweets from President Trump regarding former President Obama and his thoughts that then-President Obama would in fact start war with Iran to win reelection.

Instead of tweets, here is a video of then-businessman Trump issuing a statement regarding those same tweeted thoughts.

You can view his past tweets @ Trump Twitter Archive.

Democratic primary candidate for President former Vice President Joe Biden issued a statement regarding the airstrike.

Other Democratic hopefuls also issued statements.

As the President typically does following several foreign policy tweets he tweeted 4 more and has retweeted 18 times.

Apparently irony will not die.

He has deleted the threaded tweets only to reissue them.

As was mentioned in Thursday’s Trump Tweet thread, Just Security reported yesterday that they had obtained unredacted versions of emails regarding Ukraine military aid.

From the article published by Just Security.

Last month, a court ordered the government to release almost 300 pages of emails to the Center for Public Integrity in response to a FOIA lawsuit. It released a first batch on Dec. 12, and then a second installment on Dec. 20, including Duffey’s email, but that document, along with several others, were partially or completely blacked out.

Since then, Just Security has viewed unredacted copies of these emails, which begin in June and end in early October. Together, they tell the behind-the-scenes story of the defense and budget officials who had to carry out the president’s unexplained hold on military aid to Ukraine. 

Just Security 1/2/20.

According to the article:

What is clear is that it all came down to the president and what he wanted; no one else appears to have supported his position. Although the pretext for the hold was that some sort of policy review was taking place, the emails make no mention of that actually happening. Instead, officials were anxiously waiting for the president to be convinced that the hold was a bad idea. And while the situation continued throughout the summer, senior defense officials were searching for legal guidance, worried they would be blamed should the hold be lifted too late to actually spend all of the money, which would violate the law. 

The emails also reveal key decision points, moments when senior officials hoped the hold might be lifted. This includes Vice President Mike Pence’s September meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which a senior defense official expected would resolve the funding issue, raising the question: Why? What was supposed to come out of that meeting that would pave the way for Trump to lift the hold? What was Pence expected to communicate? 

Just Security 1/2/20.

The case for Impeachment has already been made, the President is now at this moment Impeached. The question left for the Senators is do they remove the now Impeached President or do they allow him to remain in power.

This post will be updated within reason.

This is an Open Thread.

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About Tiff 2759 Articles
Member of the Free Press who is politically homeless and a political junkie.

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