Trump’s Scary Soap Opera
This is Episode 4 of the Pompeo-Trump Scary Soap Opera of pretending that there is a sane policy behind the actions of a mad man. They still need a week to come up with it, and only have the nerve to put VP Pence up to defend it.
Yesterday, it was reported that a lot of people were surprised that Trump singularly chose this course of action, and advised against it. Today, we learned that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had been hawking for an Iranian attack for a decade. So we have found Trump’s scape goat when things go South, that is, Pompeo got thrown under the diplomatic limousine. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper is also identified as pushing for it.
Kudos to Esper, however, who said that the military would not violate the international agreements to protect cultural and religious heritage sites. Pompeo also said this, before Trump overtweeted him. Pompeo also had to say they would only attack one of the 52 targets at a time, not “very fast and very hard” as Trump said. An Iraqi general said that they had 35 targets.
The fog of Trump’s Foggy Bottom showed up when a draft letter went out to withdraw our troops from Iraq. Don’t believe anything until Kelly Ann okays it.
No criticisms have been heard from the Petrified Forest of Congressional Republicans.
Spinners Pompeo and Kelly Ann have been getting dizzy with the Trump tweet merry-go-round. Yet Republicans are mostly buying it. If only the conflict was restricted to a Twitter battle.
A million Iranians yelling “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” were not the campaign slogans that Trump wanted to start this election year with. I think that he thought that killing Soleimani was going to be another medal on his chest, like Sadam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, and the leader of ISIS were medals, without any consequences. Typical Trump action, uninformed and impatient, without consulting with government experts.
Did Trump really say double down yet again and say that he could obliterate parts of Iran? Six B52s have been based in the Middle East for action. Let’s hope they are equipped with missiles for precise military targets, and not carpet bombing as in wars past.
It’s not like Trump hasn’t been telling us every day for the past five years that he lives for revenge.
The biggest lack of US cyber security is Trump’s Tweet account. Illegally threatening a war by hitting cultural sites. Retweeting baseless conspiracy theories. Insulting leaders in our government and undermining respect for our democracy. Or, just directly distorting reality. Hiding documents and forbidding testimony by subpoenaed principals. Trump has now reduced his compliance with Congressional control of war to short tweets.
It’s odd keeping the supposed planned attacks by Iranian militias that justified the Soleimani murder secret, since, the Iranians and militias must have known all about them in the first place. This is typical of Trump secrets, like his private talks with Putin and Kim Jong Un. Putin and Kim know perfectly well everything that was said in those talks, and of course have written notes. But not the American people, or even the American intelligence agencies or the Departments of State and Defense. There is a small chance that by saying we know what the militias’ plans are, that they will not carry them out because they will all become traps. One report was even that Soleimani had instead come to Iraq to tell the local militias to cool it, and not act by themselves.
Has Trump had his Gulf of Tonkin, his Iraqi milk trucks mistaken as impossible mobile nuclear centrifuges, or his sinking of the Lusitania?
Don’t stay tuned for Episode 5 here. Lifelong learning classes are restarting, and my vacation is over.
