Things we know:
- Qasem Soleimani was an evil killer, with the blood of many Americans and others on his hands. He deserved to be taken out and the world is a better place without him.
- Trump stood up on stage in front of the world and stated that he would order his generals to commit war crimes. When challenged and told that the generals would not obey such orders, he defiantly stated that they would obey, “Believe me!”
- Trump has claimed that he knows military strategy better than “the generals”.
- Trump has stated that he makes a lot of decisions from his gut.
- Trump has shown time and time again that he acts on impulse without consulting his expert advisers. Ask Gen. Mattis.
- Trump has consistently and constantly derided our intelligence services, as incompetent, dirty, corrupt, and untrustworthy.
- Trump has brutally criticized previous presidents for embroiling us in unending wars in the Mid-East.
- Trump arrogantly predicted in 2011/2012 that President Obama would start hostilities with Iran in order to help his reelection.
- Trump criticized our intelligence community for the Iraq war errors and suggested that Bush should have been impeached for it.
- Trump lies to the American people on a daily basis.
- Anyone who has had any uneasiness about Trump and his actions have all left his administration, leaving only Trump sycophants around him.
- The Republicans have lied and covered for every one of Trump’s lies and inexcusable actions for the past 3+ years.
- Trump has impulsively thrown our allies under the bus and left them high and dry on the battlefield.
Things we don’t know:
- Whether taking out Soleimani in the way we did and at the time we did was the best strategy for handling him.
- The specific evidence and nature of the imminent threat which provided Trump the authority to act unilaterally (without Congressional approval) in conducting a military operation on foreign soil to kill Qasem Soleimani.
- Trump’s plan for the possible ramifications of that action.
- What Trump’s intelligence advisers and generals actually advised him to do.
- What Trump spoke to Putin about in the private phone call the other day.
- Whether or not the people around Trump and all of the Republicans in congress are being honest with us or simply lying and covering for Trump, yet again.
So, based on what we know and what we don’t know, what would actually be the rational reaction to Trump’s actions and the explanations we have received (and from whom we have received them)?
This is the problem with what has happened with Trump and all of the Republicans in congress (and all of the talking heads on the right) during the past 3 years. They have lied to us, consistently and repeatedly, about small things and big things. They have covered for all of the inexcusable actions and words that Trump has done and uttered. They have withheld information, testimony, and documents and put forth false narratives, again about small stuff and big stuff. Therefore, we cannot trust the word or motivations of any of these people. Yet, these are the people we are asked to believe concerning the killing of Soleimani.
It may very well be that it was the right thing to do. The intelligence may very well indicate enough of a threat that it is justified and prudent. But knowing everything we do about Trump and those around him, we can’t just take their word for it.
And that’s the problem. When big decisions like this occur, and they always do in a Presidential term…decisions that have massive implications where Americans will be asked to send our men and women into harms way in order to back up those decisions…it is imperative that the American people can have faith and confidence in those making the decisions.
No, it will never be 100% agreement, but a large, solid majority of Americans coming together is absolutely necessary.
And the same thing goes for our allies. They need to be able to have faith and confidence in our leadership in order to be able to convince their people that siding with us and going into war with us is the right thing to do.
But our allies have been derided and thrown under the bus on a consistent basis by Trump. They have no reason to trust him. Which is why we have not seen a large number of them coming to our side and pledging full support.
This creates a very dangerous situation. This is the exact scenario we have been so adamant about for the past three years…that Trump, through his ignorant, blundering, blustering, dishonest, narcissism, might recklessly and impulsively embroil us in a major international conflict that could cause massive casualties. All of the signs were there leading up to this. And the murky explanations that we have thus far been given by those who have proven time and time again to be Trump enablers, give us no confidence in the veracity of the situation and in believing they have a clear plan to handle the ramifications of the action.
This is precisely the result of electing a a person who is incompetent, dishonest, ignorant, belligerent, vindictive, untrustworthy, corrupt, and immature. And when you add to that an entire political party that is willing to not only tolerate that, but also deny it, excuse it, and even praise it, it leads us to a situation just like this one, where people are potentially going to lose their lives due to the actions of a man who should never have been anywhere near the position with the power to make such decisions.