America's recent and sudden withdrawal from northern Syria has left the region in turmoil. Russia has regained control of her client state, Turkey is emboldened in its desire to crush the Kurdish independent movement and the Islamic State is regaining momentum. Both the Kurds and the Iranian supported militias have played a crucial role in fighting the forces of ISIS.
Now our naà ¯ve president has been sucked into the escalation of American forces. It begins with a few hundred marines but where does it end? The Iraqi government has condemned the American bombing campaign as a violation of national sovereignty. Legislation is being proposed to demand withdrawal of all American troops from Iraq. What will our president do then?
Trump continues to view the conflict as one between Iran and America but he fails to understand that the vast majority of the Iraqi people are against us. We cannot be drawn into another prolonged war in the region. But rather than pause to reflect on the consequences of our actions, our fearless leader chooses to take the most provocative action possible short of launching a full-scale attack: He orders the assassination of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani at the Baghdad international airport.
We are diving headlong into the most stupid war in an era of stupid wars. It is the supremely stupid war because we have already proven the stupidity of endless war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now we are proposing a regional war with enemies on all sides: Iran, Iraq, Syria and the Islamic State.
It is the most stupid of stupid instigations to war because it legitimizes targeted assassination as a weapon of war. One wonders if Pompeo warned the president about the dangers of this action. Even warlike nations have always been reluctant to employ assassination lest the enemy replies in kind.
We can disregard all the testimonials that Qasem Soleimani was an evil man. He was a military man. He followed the directives of his government. The Iranians do not believe he was evil, the Iraqis do not believe he was evil and we did not believe he was evil when he was one of several commanders leading the fight against ISIS.
The dehumanization of our adversaries is always prelude to war and this war has all the markings of a supremely idiotic, massively destructive mother of all Middle East wars.
The president has lied and deceived us far too many times to be believed in a matter so crucial as war. The president claims an attack on American forces was eminent. There is a difference between eminent and inevitable.
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