Iraqi protestors laid siege to the US embassy in Baghdad, sparked by a US airstrike against Iranian targets in Iraq.
Thursday night news broke that US drones killed Iran’s top military leader. Here is reporting on the initial justification: “Mr. Trump, speaking to reporters in a hastily arranged appearance at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort, asserted that Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, who directed Iranian paramilitary forces throughout the Middle East, “was plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel, but we caught him in the act and terminated him.”… But General Milley, Mr. Pompeo, Mr. O’Brien and other senior administration officials did not describe any threats that were different from what American officials say General Suleimani had been orchestrating for years.”
The Washington Post’s initial report on the decision included this: “Trump was also motivated to act by what he felt was negative coverage after his 2019 decision to call off the airstrike after Iran downed the U.S. surveillance drone, officials said. Trump was also frustrated that the details of his internal deliberations had leaked out and felt he looked weak, the officials said.”
The New York Times reports that the Pentagon gave Trump a menu of retaliatory options, and that killing Suleimani was the extreme option “to make other possibilities appear more palatable.”:
“By late Thursday, the president had gone for the extreme option. Top Pentagon officials were stunned.”
The article quotes one unnamed official who said Suleimani actions were “business as usual.” It goes on to say “That official described the intelligence as thin and said that General Suleimani’s attack was not imminent “
3,500 troops are being sent immediately to the Middle East, most likley Kuwait “in one of the largest rapid deployments in decades.”
On Saturday Trump tweeted a threat to Iran that 52 targets have been identified for airstrikes if Iran retaliates: “targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD.” Many are pointing out that if this were to actually happen it would be considered a war crime against the Geneva Convention.
On Sunday he reiterated his plan to destroy cultural sites: “They’re allowed to kill our people. They’re allowed to torture and maim our people. They’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people,” the president said. “And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural site? It doesn’t work that way.”
In Other News
North Korea continued to make threats of a new missile tests.
John Roberts issues his annual report on the state of the judiciary: “Those principles leave no place for mob violence. But in the ensuing years, we have come to take democracy for granted, and civic education has fallen by the wayside. In our age, when social media can instantly spread rumor and false information on a grand scale, the public’s need to understand our government, and the protections it provides, is ever more vital. The judiciary has an important role to play in civic education.”
The New York Times reported on new details about the White House’s Ukraine scheme, further implicating Mulveney, Bolton, and Pompeo.
Meanwhile on Friday the Senate made no progress toward setting rules for the impeachment trial.
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Trump’s Job Approval: 42.5%