Thomas Friedman, in the January 3d, NYTimes wrote an OPED piece about Suleimani. Interesting take. I know sometimes those columns are not visible without subscriptions, but here is the opening: "One day they may name a street after President Trump in Tehran. Why? Because Trump just ordered the assassination of possibly the dumbest man in Iran and the most overrated strategist in the Middle East: Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani. Think of the miscalculations this guy made. In 2015, the United States and the major European powers agreed to lift virtually all their sanctions on Iran, many dating back to 1979, in return for Iran halting its nuclear weapons program for a mere 15 years, but still maintaining the right to have a peaceful nuclear program. It was a great deal for Iran. Its economy grew by over 12 percent the next year. And what did Suleimani do with that windfall? He and Iran’s supreme leader launched an aggressive regional imperial project that made Iran and its proxies the de facto controlling power in Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad and Sana. This freaked out U.S. allies in the Sunni Arab world and Israel — and they pressed the Trump administration to respond. Trump himself was eager to tear up any treaty forged by President Obama, so he exited the nuclear deal and imposed oil sanctions on Iran that have now shrunk the Iranian economy by almost 10 percent and sent unemployment over 16 percent. All that for the pleasure of saying that Tehran can call the shots in Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad and Sana. What exactly was second prize?..."
Well looks like this may pay unexpected dividends. Iraqi parliament just voted to kick us military out of Iraq. Good fug em. Let's watch ISIS reform and take over there ass again.
I agree, we need to get and stay the hell out of there. The problem is we have skin in the game, we have been there since 03 or later. I keep waiting for a president to pull us out of Afghanistan but no one will. Our government likes having bases close in the middle east for whatever or every reason imaginable. I keep waiting for someone to pull us out of Afghanistan, didn't Obama say he would do it? No one will yet? I hope Trump pulls us out of Afghanistan, why stay there? Maybe the Russians were smarter than I thought? lol
I lost all respect for the Bush's with the way they acted when Donald Trump became the nominee and then president. They were supposedly Republicans yet talked like they would vote for Hillary? Where are their principles and values if true. I defended Bush in order that like others, WMD's played a role but we wanted the Iraqi's to have freedoms like we did which included getting rid of Saddam for gassing his people and torture chambers. I totally get it the problem is what Iraq is turning into, an Iranian province. It just seems like we spend billions of dollars and we lose lives in these wars and for what? It seems like the opposition party and media, the Democrats always turn against our interventions and blame our country and soldiers.
Whats good about this is its made clear where everyone stands. Trumps forced everyone to choose a side. The left is now a clear enemy of the state showing their true colors by giving aid and comfort to this terrorist regime. Add the rinos to the list. They should be treated as such. Wasn't the border security thing overturned during mullah big ears term. So it's no coincidence red states are now falling one by one. Theyve sold us out and unless something is done with relative quickness we will be too far gone. The onus is on us to end it for future generations to save the last beacon of hope as Reagan sorta said. Which is really our constitution and the spirit and industriousness of the American people. Also I'd really love to smash Chuck Todd's face in. Rickey Gervais is hilarious btw.
