I doubt it, I think his approval rating will remain at about 42% no matter what.
I am guessing that we won’t see the President try to declare war tomorrow morning. I know he isn’t up on the Constitution but surely he isn’t going to try something that brash when we don’t even have American casualties.
There are hawks in Congress but the last thing Republicans want is to start another unnecessary war in the Middle East, with all of the blame falling on an impeached Republican president, with no international support, in an election year, and without even a pretense of cassus bellli.
~Max
Not an American but why did the US department of Defense even offer the assassination up as an option to Trump? Well he took it. Without any explanation for the need to urgently drone the bastard.
I want to believe that someone does a calculation of likelihood/ability of deadly retaliation before droning becomes an option. Isn’t that why the US attacks terrorists and not North Korea? Or why the US uses proxies to overthrow enemy state leaders like Gaddiffi/Assad and not Putin? Someone makes a risk assessment before Trump can rule on this; no? Well that person needs to be fired or Soleimani’s immediate death better have been worth the lives lost in retaliation attacks.
A Boeing 737 has crashed in Iran. What a busy news day.
hmmmm
seems he’s stuck his foot in it.
I have a suspicious mind. A Ukrainian Airlines flight crashes shortly after leaving Tehran. I’m sure it’s all a giant coincidence that an ally of ours (sort of) and an enemy of Russia’s (definitely) had an airplane downed the same night as Iran launches missiles.
I wonder just how good Iranian targeting systems are. Because it seems to me that there are two possibilities:
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The Iranians were aiming at US troops but missed. Which would indicate that they can’t call their shots very well (albeit they seemed to do just fine when they hit Saudi oil facilities in September)
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They deliberately hit sites close too but not hitting Americans, to in effect saying “we could have have killed your people but didn’t, you want to talk now?”
I have no idea if either of the above is true, or if the Iranians are communicating with us via ‘backchannels’ (Europe or Russia). Obviously the next step in the macabre dance is ours, and with Our President calling the shots, I am not confident that the next steps will be either nuanced or well thought-out.
We shall see.
Let’s go to the quarry and throw stuff down there! Comedy gold right here, ladies and gentlemen! Comedy GOLD!
That is terrifying.
~Max
The 2nd option sounds much more plausible. Deep down, I don’t think Tehran wants war. They’re probably hoping Trump will resort to some non-kinetic things like cyberwarfare and let things cool down.
Cyberwarfare, interestingly, offers a way out for both sides. It is still warfare, but doesn’t (usually) kill people, and is a non-violent way to let out steam.
Those are area effect missiles, meant to be used with Gas or Nuke rounds. They were good enough to get them into the ball park, but one twitter video I was watching, showed the CRAM firing as it came down. Looks like the CRAM has the same problem as the first generation Patriot missile in Desert Storm. Cuts the missile in half, but the warhead still fuses on impact. Presicion targetting is not that missiles forte.
As for number two, the military is going to phase one. Put up combat air patrols, send out notams to get Irani airspace clear of passenger planes, hold all tankers short of the hormuz straight and clear all traffic in and outbound. Start moving the Navy shooters to the gunline, Get the B-52’s to Diego Garcia, tanker aircraft and T-hawk reloads etc.
Funny you should say that, I have to check with a friend tommorow, to see if those rockets can be remote launched.
Shouldn’t they be emphasizing B-2s instead? Iran would probably be able to shoot down big lumbering non-stealthy bombers like B-52s.
This. The BMs would have been picked up by satellite almost immediately and the warning would have been transmitted to the troops in danger by NORAD…take cover you guys ,quickly.
They seem to have launched them en salvo from a couple of spots, to make sure the US could see them. If they had used Cruise Missiles and expendable drones, (like against the Saudis), then they would have had much less or no warning (depending on assets deployed).
We know that they are.
…,equipped with advanced jammers and long range stand off weapons.
Since Iran retaliated with a measured response (and took credit for it) and it appears that Trump has backed down from his “fire and fury” rhetoric, it seems that there was some desperate back channeling going on so both sides could save face. Of course, Trump backing down will be spun as a glorious dear leader move. He just saved us all from World War 3 with his brilliant presidenting! It seems that maybe cooler heads prevailed this time.
You remember those hostages that Canada helped sneak out of Iran? They’re thinking about giving them back, that’s how much they want no part of this.
Are you posting this now or from some future date? 
IMHO they were super good in the Saudi oil infrastructure attack.
After his “all is well” tweet tonight and before his “how can the Soleimani loving Democrats impeach me when I just showed everyone how bigly presidential I am” speech tomorrow morning. 
And I did say “this time”. No expectations that we won’t be in the same shit, same time, next week.