President Trump ordered the United States military to kill Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in a strike carried out early Friday. There are plenty of questions regarding this action. It is too soon to know the answers to many of them. Perhaps in the days ahead the answer will be revealed.
One of my questions regards the information regarding our intelligence services. President Trump even before his inauguration questioned the information provided by the intelligence services regarding Russian interference in our elections. He has continued to question their reliability. Now President Trump gets information that coincides with his preconceived beliefs about Iran so he acts on them. Now we have great and accurate intelligence services. Is it only accurate when you tell him what he wants to hear?
General Soleimani was killed in Iraq. We violated the sovereignty of another nation to carry out an assassination. It would seem to leave us open to an Iranian or Iranian proxy group acting in the same manner against our troops or diplomatic staff anywhere in the world. Does that make anyone feel more safe?
Iran has announced they are no longer going to comply with the nuclear deal President Trump tore up. So they will enrich and stockpile nuclear materials perhaps leading to the creation of nuclear weapons. Does that enhance our safety or calm tensions in the Middle East?
President Trump has tweeted he will attack 52 sites in Iran if they attack U.S. troops or interests. He indicated some were cultural sites. According to the Geneva Conventions those actions would be a war crime. Would our military leaders refuse to follow an unlawful order?
The military provided President Trump with a series of options in order to respond to the attack on our embassy in Iraq. The assassination of Soleimani was one of the options. It is rumored that the military leaders from the Pentagon were surprised the President chose that option and attempted to dissuade him from that choice. If you give someone lacking foresight an option to do something with potentially long term serious consequences you shouldn’t be surprised when they pick the worst possible option. Why do we continually pick the kill someone option?
So many questions. No answers. Time will tell but I suspect the road ahead will lead to dire consequences for both sides.
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