Trump the Hit Man
To ring in the New Year, our impulsive clown in the White House, acting like a mob boss, ordered a hit on the second most powerful man in Iran, General Qasem Soleimani, while he was driving away from the Baghdad airport. This assassination—contrary to both American and international law—was a drastic escalation in Trump’s war on Iran. He started it in May 2018 by unilaterally withdrawing from the nuclear accord arranged by Obama and supported by all of our European coalition partners. He then imposed the most severe economic sanctions ever applied on Iran, totally crippling the economy—a virtual act of war.
What most of our mainstream media is not telling us is that this series of tit-for-tat escalations began way back in July, when Israel launched a series of eight air strikes on Iranian proxy militias in Iraq, killing dozens of soldiers and civilians. Netanyahu has admitted it was Israeli warplanes and drones behind the attacks, with American targeting help. So who really drew first blood here?
The Soleimani assassination was legal by international law only if he were planning an “imminent attack” that had to be stopped. But Trump and his sycophants have offered zero evidence of such an attack. Even Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, supposedly in the loop, admitted he had seen none. And Republicans Mike Lee and Rand Paul slammed a Department of Defense briefing that refused to provide evidence—just more “Trust us,” like the lies that got us into Iraq in the first place. Those senators have announced that they would support Democrat Tim Kaine’s War Powers Resolution, prohibiting Trump from escalating the war against Iran without a Congressional declaration.
Once again Netanyahu and his neocon allies in Washington have been wagging the dog, namely their submissive poodle Donald Trump. It’s no accident that the war drums are thumping as both leaders face domestic trouble: possible criminal conviction for Netanyahu and impeachment for Trump. One way to dodge such trouble is to launch a foreign attack of some kind and inspire all to rally around the flag.
Trump has even more or less admitted that it was pressure from Republican senators—who would soon be jurors at his impeachment trial—that pushed him, along with Pompeo, to murder Soleimani. If his poll numbers start tanking as the election nears, Trump could very well launch more preemptive attacks based on lies to get a ratings boost.
A strong bipartisan coalition is forming to prevent that from happening, finally reasserting long abdicated war powers to Congress. But we all need to be on guard for manipulations that could trigger a war: false flag attacks or con jobs, like the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and WMDs in Iraq.
