duplicate
I didn’t specifically say it was a good reason to assassinate him. I was pushing back on the idea that we need evidence of an imminent threat or it was murder. He coordinated militia groups. Something, somewhere was imminent.
I have zero doubt that Soleimani was evil. I’m very certain he had done bad things, and he probably wanted to, and maybe was even planning to do other bad things. The world is probably a better place without him in it. And that makes me sad because I try hard to never wish for death on any person while recognizing that in the real world things are not so simple.
However, I also have no doubt:
- When Trump was under pressure from the Russia investigation he fired Comey. How do I know? He said so.
- When Trump was under pressure from the Mueller investigation he wanted to fire Mueller. I’m a little surprised this didn’t happen.
- With Trump wanting to be re-elected in 2020, he abused the power of his office to gain dirt on a possible opponent.
- Trump was under pressure from the Ukraine impeachment, and so he did what Trump does under such circumstances. He acts for his own selfish ends, and created a distraction. Everything else is at best a secondary consideration.
- Now on top of that, it seems that he also did so to curry favor with GOP senators.
- Donald Trump is a liar. He lies seeminhly reflexively. He lies about things that he doesn’t need to lie about except to appease his ego.
Regardless of Soleimani’s evil character, this is not a valid reason to assassinate him. If he was going to take such action for the good of the nation, then maybe that would be something. But he didn’t. He acted selfishly as he always does.
Trump knows he’s a criminal. He knows that if/when he leaves office, then he’s going to prison. His crimes will be exposed, and so probably worse than going to prison for him, he’s going to be exposed as a loser and failure. He’s fighting for his life and his ego. He will do anything to protect those, and it doesn’t matter who he was to hurt to protect himself. And that includes the USA.
So yes, I actually doubt that there was an actual threat so imminent that it required immediate action to take out a general. Take out an operations team, maybe. But a general? That doesn’t make sense. I think it was a lie made up by Trump.
There aren’t a lot of countries executing people in other countries without permission. This attack was a clear outlier in terms of how things work here in the real world. People who wanted Suleimani dead might not like the way the real world works but that doesn’t mean they can just do whatever they want.
You and I perhaps have different definitions of imminent. If something is an imminent threat, then it was passed the planning stage.
Have you ever served in the military? Because killing the officer-in-charge doesn’t stop an operation. The second-in-command will simply step in and give the go order. Trump’s story doesn’t make any sense. Which does make sense, because Trump is a liar.
I would fully believe that Soleimani’s was in charge of groups targetting the USA. But that’s not an imminent threat. And again, this isn’t a question about where Soleimani was evil. He was. Definitely. Total asshole. He might have even deserved to die (as much as I hate to say such a thing).
But let’s not attribute this to Trump’s patriotism or keen strategic sense. He acted selfishly, as he always does because that’s who he is. He doesn’t care about MAGA. He cares about Make Trump Rich Again (and also Keep Trump Out of Prison). Those might not sell as many hats.
Let me ask you this CarnalK, would you think it is ok for North Korean forces to assassinate General Robert B. Abrams (Commander US Forces Korea)? He’s certainly in charge of forces of that are planning and targetting North Korean forces. Would it be ok for North Korean to invite the commander to North Korea for a diplomatic consultation and then drop a bomb on him? You might, well, Abrams isn’t actually do anything. Just planning.
Ok. How about Elizabeth Kimber (Director of Operations CIA)? The CIA is conducting operations all the time all over the world that target people. Is it alright to drop a bomb on her?
I would say no. That’s not ok. Perhaps you feel differently.
You know for a fact that it was right to vaporized him? Huh, cool, I’d never heard of him until last week.
I’m sure only law and order, choir boy types rise to leadership positions in Israel.
Just wanted to say that I’m so happy to see that there’s at least one person who understands and esteems the rule of law. We used to have an entire nation of people like this.
This Iranian regime is, as we speak, holding on to its power by brute force, intimidation, and murder of their own citizens. We will see if this continues to work for them. I suspect soon.
But let’s not forget that the US is deliberately weakening this regime with the aim of toppling it eventually, yet there’s no plan for a post-Ayatollah Iran that we know of. Is it responsible to foment regime change when there’s no plan for the aftermath? Probably not.
Do any members of the Shah’s family survive?
Israel has pretty much been fighting for existence since 1947.
You aren’t helping, and your English grammar fellates with great alacrity.
so just for devils advocacy if Iran sent someone in to take out the CIA head or one of our generals or even dump himself because they were planning anti-Iranian ops would and should we shrug it off as the price of world leadership, of course, wed lob some missiles and bombs just to show were not pansies …
I laughed at this, because the way that people were talking about him since his killing, I felt ignorant that I didn’t know his name. So I did an SDMD search; surely there must be oodles of opinions on him here. I think I saw 3 threads with his name mentioned since 2014. Not quite the same level as Osama Bin Ladin or Saddam Hussein.
The man spent the past 3 years trying to set up a massive terrorist missile array in southern Syria facing my country. Of course I heard of him, and I was damn happy he died. I only wish he’d been hit by a truck or something.
We do now.
Which fact gives me great pause.
That’s enough right there.
No more personal cracks.
Based on your location, I do not doubt you for a second. In fact, this was the example I used when my very pro-Trump colleague was gloating the day after the killing. Even in deep blue NYC, you bump into many ultra-conservatives (who somehow never talk about government spending or deficits any more).
The point I made was that, as Americans we’re so insulated from any legitimate direct danger that it’s easy to sit back and high five each other when something like this happens. But if my family was in Israel or really just about anywhere in the Middle East, I’d be scared as hell after such an event. It sounds odd to say, but with this president, I’m actually glad that Kim Jong Un has nukes that could potentially reach US territories. Otherwise, who knows what this president would do and how many millions of residents of Seoul would be in danger?
I am curious, where on your list of “people who you’d like to be dead” Suleimani was. Was he #1, or further down the list? If the latter, who else is on it? As someone who actually lives in Israel, I’d trust your opinion over my gun-waving, flag-hugging, conservative neighbors (the majority who had surely never heard of Suleimani before last week).
Yeah, that would settle things down.