As you’ve probably heard by now, on Thursday night, the U.S. launched a drone strike that killed General Qasem Soleimani, the second most powerful man in Iran. While Soleimani was responsible for the death of thousands of people, including hundreds of Americans, many have expressed fear that the seemingly rash move, taken without approval from Congress, will needlessly inflame tensions with Iran and potentially lead to another war in the Middle East. Following the strike, Iran vowed to exact “severe revenge” against those behind the attack, i.e. America, with the country’s top security body later saying the U.S. will be held responsible for its “criminal adventure,” and that “this was the biggest U.S. strategic blunder in the West Asia region, and America will not easily escape its consequences.” By Friday, #WorldWarIII was trending on Twitter, which is generally considered a bad thing. But according to Trump, who apparently never hit the developmental milestone when small children learn about cause and effect, his decision to kill one of the most powerful people in the region wasn’t intended to start a war but to somehow make things cool with Iran.
Speaking from Mar-a-Lago, Trump explained, “We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war.”
While a number of Republicans like Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham cheered the killing, Democrats and other concerned parties have expressed worry— somewhat reasonably!— that Trump’s actions have “endangered American diplomats and troops in the Middle East and beyond.” Even within his own administration, there’s reportedly fear about “Iranian reprisals inside U.S. borders,” which would assuredly be met with further attacks by the U.S. (New York City mayor Bill DeBlasio said Friday afternoon that the city could be under a “threat that’s different and greater than anything we have faced previously” and Governor Andrew Cuomo sent the National Guard to protect New York airports.)
To give you an idea of how worrisome the notion of what might happen next is— and how absurd Trump’s claim that killing Soleimani was intended to deescalate the situation with Iran was— even Fox News contributor and longtime Trump loyalist Geraldo Rivera pushed back against the action, warning that it was a terrible decision. (Barking seals Brian Kilmeade and Steve Doocey could not believe he would dare to express such insolence for their leader):
Meanwhile, according to Bloomberg, as of Friday morning key members of Congress apparently hand’t been briefed, with the White House simply forwarding the Defense Department’s public statement on the matter to the offices of those who’d requested further information. Which is probably another way of saying Trump is making this shit up as he goes along.