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Qassem Suleimani, 1957-2020
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"I've got morons on my team."

Mitt Romney
Minor Deity
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Jim Webb's take, which I think is spot on. Soleimani is no saint for Webb, but he highlights the missing logic of our whole approach to state-sponsored terrorism.

When did it become OK to kill a leader of a country we aren't even at war with?

Definitions matter in determining appropriate conduct. And actions have potentially very unsettling future consequences.
 
Posts: 12530 | Location: Williamsburg, VA | Registered: 19 July 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Pinta & the Santa Maria
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It's pretty clear that Trump has Obama derangement syndrome. His decision to pull out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action started this whole thing rolling. What's telling to me is not that he wanted to withdraw, take his ball and go home. Instead, he wanted to replace it with his plan (as yet unknown but heck, it wouldn't be Obama's, which is as far as his feeble mind apparently took things). The problem? the Iran deal was largely working. Now we're thrust into chaos by this petulant little brat.
 
Posts: 35377 | Location: West: North and South! | Registered: 20 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
The White House announced Friday it is imposing additional economic sanctions against Iran, including officials in the Iranian government.

The penalties, promised earlier this week by President Trump, "will cut off billions of dollars of support to the Iranian regime," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The restrictions are a response to Iran's missile attack on Ain al-Assad air base in Iraq, where U.S. and coalition service members are stationed. There were no injuries in the attack, but some of its facilities were damaged.

Iran fired the missiles after the U.S. killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike.

Speaking in the White House press briefing room alongside Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Mnuchin said Trump is issuing an executive order authorizing sanctions against "any individual owning, operating, trading with or assisting sectors of the Iranian economy, including construction, manufacturing, textiles and mining."

In addition, Mnuchin outlined 17 specific sanctions against Iran's largest steel and iron manufacturers, along with three entities based in the Seychelles and a vessel involved in the transfer of products.

Other targets of the sanctions include the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, the commander of the Basij militia of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and other senior leaders close to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The restrictions limit the targets' ability to interact with the U.S. financial system, do business with Americans, access dollars in some cases or travel to the United States.


https://www.npr.org/2020/01/10...nctions-against-iran

Guess we're back in the regime change business.


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We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb

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Posts: 37885 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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About the sanctions.

https://www.barrons.com/articl...ont-help-51578577253


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We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb

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Posts: 37885 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Regarding the Iraqi request that the US start planning its withdrawal..Pompeo responds.

quote:
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday said U.S. military forces aren’t preparing to completely withdraw from Iraq but may trim down force numbers in coming months as officials reassess ongoing missions there.

But Pompeo, in a White House briefing Friday morning, characterized the diplomatic request differently, saying he viewed it as part of ongoing discussions about the role of U.S. troops in ongoing missions to counter Islamic State fighters.

“We are happy to continue the conversation with the Iraqis about what the right structure is for our mission,” he said. “We've been there to perform a training mission to help the Iraqi security forces be successful, and to continue the campaign against ISIS … We're going to continue that mission.”

But Pompeo added that with recent successes against ISIS, the United States may be able to continue that work “with fewer resources.” He added that increases in NATO troops in the region could also lead to decreases in U.S. personnel there.


https://www.militarytimes.com/...all-military-forces/


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We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb

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Posts: 37885 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Sunday that he "didn't see" specific evidence that Iran was readying to attack four U.S. embassies, as President Donald Trump claimed last week, though Esper said he shared Trump's view that such an attack was "probably" in the works.

"What the president said was he believed that it probably and could've been attacks against additional embassies," Esper told CBS's "Face the Nation." "I shared that view, I know other members of the national security team shared that view, that's why I deployed thousands of American paratroopers to the Middle East to reinforce our embassy in Baghdad and other sites throughout the region."

After telling reporters that Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike this month, sought to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Trump told Fox News host Laura Ingraham in a Friday interview: "I can reveal that I believe it would have been four embassies" Soleimani was plotting against.

Esper said the president made no citation of "a specific piece of evidence," adding that Trump was just making clear what he believed to be the case.

"I didn't see one with regard to four embassies," Esper said of a specific piece of evidence leading to Trump's conclusion. "What I'm saying is I shared the president's view ... my expectation was they were going to go after our embassies."


https://www.nbcnews.com/politi...trump-claim-n1114166

No wonder it didn't get mentioned during the classified Senate briefing.


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We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb

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Posts: 37885 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Some history.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politi...-conditions-n1113271


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We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb

Bazootiehead-in-training



 
Posts: 37885 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Russia stirring the pot.

quote:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that Iran’s accidental shooting down of a Ukrainian airliner last week occurred at a time when Tehran was spooked by reports of advanced U.S. stealth fighters in the area.

“There were at least six (U.S.) F-35 fighters in the air in the Iranian border area (at the time). This information has yet to be verified, but I’d like to underline the edginess that always accompanies such situations,” Lavrov said.


https://www.reuters.com/articl...rliner-idUSKBN1ZG1OB

Also turns out that Trump's announcement that no Americans were injured in the Iranian missile attacks wasn't quite accurate. Apparently 11 members of the military have been moved to medical facilities in Germany and elsewhere to be treated for concussions/traumatic brain injuries.


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We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb

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Posts: 37885 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Up to 34 with TBI.


quote:
Eight U.S. troops diagnosed with traumatic brain injury (TBI) arrived in the U.S. on Friday, according to Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman.

Hoffman said those troops are among a total of 34 American servicemembers diagnosed with TBI after the al Asad airbase where they were stationed in Iraq was hit by missiles fired by Iran on Jan. 8. The attack was in reprisal for a U.S. drone strike Jan. 3 that killed top Iranian general Qassed Soleimani.

It was at least the third time U.S. officials have had to revise President Trump's Jan. 8 claim that no Americans were injured by the Iranian missile barrage.


quote:
Trump, for his part, downplayed reports of the U.S. troops sustaining concussion-type injuries when asked about them last week in Davos, Switzerland.

"I heard that they had headaches, and a couple of other things," Trump said. "But I would say, and I can report it is not very serious. Not very serious."



https://www.npr.org/2020/01/24...anian-missile-strike


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We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb

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Posts: 37885 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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