SPITE DOES NOT MAKE RIGHT

Intelligence is not always beneficial, unless it’s used properly. The killing of the Iranian General Soleimani in Iraq was a result of good intelligence used in an abhorrent manner.  General Soleimani, a Shiite Muslim, was in Iraq at the behest of President Barham Salih, a Shiite Muslim Kurd. They were cooperating in an effort to wipe out the ISIS Sunni Muslim fighters in Northern Iraq. United States had abandoned and left the Shiite Kurds to fend for themselves against ISIS and Turkish Sunni Arab forces when we pulled out of Northern Iraq and Syria.

The United States has always contended we were in Iraq to hold down the peace in the region and eliminate any last vestiges of ISIS. The Green Zone, where the U.S. embassy the largest embassy in the world is located, was attacked with missiles from outside the compound in 2019.  The Attack killed an American in the zone and quick draw, impetuous Trump wanted to retaliate against anyone close by. Trump’s senior intelligence and security advisors must have told him that a targeted individual in General Soleimani was in Bagdad at that time.

In an act of war, Trump assassinated the General, a beloved individual in Iran and leader of the Quds force, a highly trained paramilitary regional Iranian strike force. Barham Salih was not notified of the actions. The following day after the missile attack and the assassination, a Toyota pick-up truck with rocket launchers attached to the bed was found abandoned outside the Green Zone and the direction from where the missiles had come from. The vehicle belonged to an Arab Sunni. 

A recent World Court decision found the actions to be murder. As a result of our military actions, the Iranians were so fearful in haste, it shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet. The Iranian people are not short on memory.  The U.S. actions will not be forgotten or forgiven by the Iranians anytime soon. The Iranians and the Iraqis saw the General’s mission as one of peace and eventual salvation for the Kurds. 

If Trump had waited a day or was informed of the mission of the General, would he have committed the same atrocity?  I contend he knew and was informed by the insiders in the Iraqi government and perhaps even Barham Salih could have notified anyone of his efforts to bring peace to his homeland.  Did Trump use the missile attack as an excuse? 

This action benefited his Turkish friend President Recep Erdogan who was fighting with the Kurds in Northern Iraq to seize Iraqi Kurdish lands and use the buffer zone as an excuse.  Soleimani was going to be a thorn in the side of Erdogan and his land grab.

Does the actions of Trump indicate he really wants to get out of Iraq?  Trump and all of his administration have no clue about the Middle East, unless you analyze all the motivations for what appears to be stupidity and a spiteful, ill-advised actions? Was this action really performed to retaliate for the Green Zone killing? Was it just an opportunity killing? Ill-informed knee jerk act of war?  Was it a favor to Erdogan?

Kaleigh McEnany had the gall to stand in front of the White House Press and use the above actions in Iraq as an example of Trump’s decisive actions when presented with an opportunity.  Regardless, an act of war without the facts seems like an impetuous spiteful act. 

Was this an example of acting swiftly on intelligence? Was this actually used as an excuse as to why he has not acted on the bounty on coalition forces? Was this due to not having clear, unambiguous, factual evidence that Russia was committing these acts?  All this after it was found that Trump had ignored the intelligence about the bounties Russia had put on coalition forces in Afghanistan. Duh!