Thursday, January 9, 2020
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
Trump Says 'Iran Appears to Be Standing Down.' But History Suggests That Might Not Be So Simple
https://time.com/5761483/iran-retaliation/
U.S. President Trump told reporters Wednesday that there were no casualties. While that presents the Trump Administration an off-ramp from the warpath,
a closer look at Iran’s history of respondings to its enemies’
aggression suggests it’s too early to say whether this is, in fact, the
end of its retaliatory moves.
Codenamed “Operation Martyr Qasem Soleimani”, Iran’s
fusillade of more than a dozen rockets struck Al Asad Air Base in Iraq’s
Anbar province. Another barrage beginning at about 1:30 am local time
hit an airbase in northern Iraq’s Erbil. U.S. and European government
sources familiar with intelligence assessments told Reuters on Wednesday they believed Iran had deliberately sought to avoid U.S. military casualties.
“Iran took & concluded proportionate measures in self-defense
under Article 51 of UN Charter,” the Republic’s Foreign Minister Javad
Zarif wrote
on Twitter soon after the strike. He added that Iran did not seek
“escalation or war, but will defend ourselves against any aggression.”
“Iran appears to be standing down,” Trump said during
a short address at the White House on Wednesday morning. He also
boasted of the U.S. military strength and said he would immediately
impose further sanctions on Iran.
But in a Twitter post
issued only hours after Zarif’s, Iran’s Supreme Leader Khameini seemed
to contradict his foreign minister, casting doubt on whether Iran’s
retaliation has indeed concluded. “[The Americans] were slapped last
night, but such military actions are not enough,” he said.
Uri Geller offers UK govt his 'psychic powers' in job bid
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/274278
Urii Geller revealed Wednesday he has applied to work for the British
government after Prime Minister Boris Johnson's chief adviser called for
"weirdos and misfits" to apply for jobs.
In an application sent to Johnson's unorthodox top aide Dominic
Cummings - the senior Brexit strategist depicted in the 2019 film Brexit: The Uncivil War - the British-Israeli spoon-bender offered up the use of his "genuine psychic powers".
Why Europe hates Trump more than Iran
https://www.politico.eu/article/why-europe-hates-trump-more-than-iran/
Reckless, illegal, unhinged.
When it comes to finding adjectives to describe U.S. President Donald
Trump’s assassination of Iranian military guru Qassem Soleimani, which prompted the Iranians to respond
by launching missile attacks on bases in Iraq housing U.S. troops
overnight, European officials have displayed rare unity. At least in
private.
Behind the sober public pronouncements from Brussels and national
capitals about the need for “de-escalation,” officials are seething.
Trump, Iran, and Where ‘The Forever War’ Was Always Headed
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-iran-and-where-the-forever-war-was-always-headed
The more plausible reason Trump killed Soleimani is the one
administration officials kept coming back to after being challenged on
the intelligence and the strategy. It was one Bush adopted about Saddam
to dismiss similar pre-invasion questions.
Soleimani was an evil
man, Iran is an aggressive state, and America reserves for itself the
right to kill people on that basis. The “terrorist” Soleimani–so
designated by Trump, following in yet another post-9/11 tradition–”not
only caused enormous death and destruction throughout the region, killed
hundreds of Americans over the years, but had done so in the past
couple of days, killed an American on December 27th,” Pompeo told
Brennan.
In other words, America was settling a 40-year-old score. As Jeremy Scahill detailed for the Intercept,
many on the right, from neoconservatives to nationalists, have never
been comfortable with leaving Iran out of the war on terrorism. Many
consider Bush’s 2002 characterization of Iran as part of an “Axis of
Evil” a bold move that he unfortunately backed away from acting upon.
They seethed as Iran faced no consequence for exploiting the Iraq
occupation to kill and maim U.S. troops with powerful roadside
bombs–something else that blurred the distinction between Iran and the
war on terrorism.
The insistence on Soleimani as the incarnation
of Iran’s evil has additional utility. It seeks to intimidate those who
oppose the assassination and portray them as terrorist sympathizers,
morally bankrupt, inauthentically American, and contemptuous of a
suppressed people’s struggle for freedom. That worked exceptionally well
for the Bush administration in the wake of 9/11. Democrats, sensing a
vengeful national mood, opted for complicity or silence. Trump and his
allies are running the play again.
URGENT PETITION: Let Arline Lester live...Don't Pull the Plug!
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Iran won’t hand over black boxes from airliner that crashed, killing 176
https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-wont-hand-over-black-boxes-from-airliner-that-crashed-killing-176/
Amid speculation that accident was linked to
missile barrage, Tehran officials insist engine trouble was the cause,
but Boeing says 737 was in good condition with experienced crew
Tuesday, January 7, 2020
The Executive Branch Is Staffed Entirely With People Who Tell a Half-Crazy Guy What He Wants to Hear
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a30418742/six-trump-pentagon-officials-leave-in-a-month/
Mr. Mattis said then that he had resigned in protest of President Trump’s decision to withdraw American forces from Syria and in protest of the president’s rejection of international alliances. Mr. Mattis had originally said he would step down at the end of February, but angered by Mr. Mattis’s criticism, Mr. Trump said he was removing Mr. Mattis from his post two months early.
Top Military Officers Unload on Trump
I. HE DISDAINS EXPERTISE
Trump has little interest in the details of policy. He makes up his mind about a thing, and those who disagree with him—even those with manifestly more knowledge and experience—are stupid, or slow, or crazy.
II. HE TRUSTS ONLY HIS OWN INSTINCTS
Trump believes that his gut feelings about things are excellent, if not genius. Those around him encourage that belief, or they are fired. Winning the White House against all odds may have made it unshakable.
III. HE RESISTS COHERENT STRATEGY
If there is any broad logic to Trump’s behavior, it’s Keep ’em confused. He believes that unpredictability itself is a virtue.
IV. “HE IS REFLEXIVELY CONTRARY”
General H. R. McMaster, who left the White House on reasonably good terms in April 2018 after only 14 months as national security adviser, is about as can-do a professional as you will find. He appeared to take Trump seriously, and tailored his briefings to accommodate the president’s famous impatience, in order to equip him for the weighty decisions the office demands. But Trump resents advice and instruction. He likes to be agreed with. Efforts to broaden his understanding irritate him. McMaster’s tenure was bound to be short. Weeks before accepting his resignation, the president let it be known that he found McMaster’s briefings tedious and the man himself “gruff and condescending.”
V. HE HAS A SIMPLISTIC AND ANTIQUATED NOTION OF SOLDIERING
Though he disdains expert advice, Trump reveres—perhaps fetishizes—the military. He began his presidency by stacking his administration with generals: Mattis, McMaster, Kelly, and, briefly, Michael Flynn, his first national security adviser. Appointing them so soon after their retirement from the military was a mistake, according to Don Bolduc, a retired brigadier general who is currently running as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in New Hampshire. Early on, the biggest difference Bolduc saw between the Trump administration and its predecessors, and one he felt was “going to be disruptive in the long term,” was “the significant reliance, in the Pentagon at least, on senior military leadership overriding and making less relevant our civilian oversight. That was going to be a huge problem. The secretary of defense pretty much surrounded himself with his former Marine comrades, and there was, at least from that group, a distrust of civilians that really negatively affected the Pentagon in terms of policy and strategy in Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq, by following the same old failed operational approaches.” Trump’s reliance on military solutions is problematic because “there are limits to what the military can solve. I think initially the Trump administration held this idea that general officers somehow have all the answers to everything. I think the president discovered in short order that that’s really not the case.”
Pentagon Officials Reportedly “Stunned” by Trump’s Decision to Kill Soleimani
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/01/pentagon-officials-reportedly-stunned-trump-kill-soleimani.html
Although top U.S. national security officials continue to insist that
the killing of Soleimani was in response to an imminent threat against
Americans, there continues to be skepticism
about that claim as the administration has failed to provide convincing
evidence to make its case. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley
also made clear that the attacks could still happen, meaning that
killing Soleimani did not get rid of the supposed imminent threat.
Several Democratic lawmakers have expressed skepticism at the
president’s claims. “My staff was briefed by a number of people
representing a variety of agencies in the United States government and
they came away with no feeling that there was evidence of an imminent
attack,” Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico said.
Pentagon rejects Trump threat to hit Iranian cultural sites
The Pentagon on Monday distanced itself from President Donald Trump’s assertions that he would bomb Iranian cultural sites despite international prohibitions on such attacks.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the U.S. will “follow the laws of armed conflict.” When asked if that ruled out targeting cultural sites, Esper said pointedly, “That’s the laws of armed conflict.”
The split between the president and his Pentagon chief came amid heightened tensions with Tehran following a U.S. drone strike that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force. Trump had twice warned that he would hit Iranian cultural sites if Tehran retaliates against the U.S.
Esper’s public comments reflected the private concerns of other defense and military officials, who cited legal prohibitions on attacks on civilian, cultural and religious sites, except under certain, threatening circumstances.
how to start a war
Berachos (3b) He said to them: Then go out in troops and attack [the enemy for plunder]. They at once took counsel with Ahithofel and consulted the Sanhedrin and questioned the Urim and Tummim.21 R. Joseph says: What verse [may be cited in support of this]? And after Ahithofel was Jehoiada, the son of Benaiah,22 and Abiathar; and the captain of the King's host was Joab.23
iN OTHER WORDS first discuss the plans for war with close advisors then consult with Sanhedrin (congress) for permission and prayers and then the urim vTumim to know whether it would be successful
Trump says since I am a stable genius and I need to distract from impeachment, stir up my base to get me more attention and I need to show Iran that they can't challenge me - I will start war for my political benefit without concern to consequences to others as he accuse Obama of planning in 2011
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