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Originally posted by Nina:
The tweets are reckless and may end up escalating everything despite the best intentions of his military and diplomatic advisors.

His twitter account should be closed as a matter of national security.

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If they do ask us to leave, if we don’t do it in a very friendly basis. We will charge them sanctions like they’ve never seen before ever. It’ll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame."

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"Iraq, was the worst decision, going into the Middle East was the worst decision ever made in the history of our country ... We're not leaving unless they pay us back for it," he said of the joint air base.

On the targeting of cultural sites, Trump said, "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. And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural site? It doesn’t work that way."

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Originally posted by wtg:

And apparently even his advisors were surprised he chose this option from the choices that were laid out for him.

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Originally posted by Piano*Dad:
Remember, this is the guy who thinks Gallagher is a hero despite Gallagher's colleagues thinking of him as the devil's spawn. Trump has no understanding of military codes of honor and no respect for little things like international war crimes conventions.

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A U.S. military official in Iraq told NPR that the troops would be moved to "other, safer countries" while training missions were suspended. He added that most are coalition and NATO forces, not American.

A letter from Brig. Gen. William Seely to the director of the Iraqi joint operations task force informed the Iraqi government that the U.S. would be "repositioning forces over the coming days and weeks to prepare for onward movement."

The military official said the operation involved several hundred troops, mostly coalition and NATO forces being moved from the main military base in Baghdad's Green Zone. The base had been a frequent target of rocket attacks.

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NPR's Tom Bowman reported that there are about 5,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, helping in the fight against ISIS there. But U.S. military officials said they would halt those efforts while bracing for retaliation from Iran.

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A top adviser to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who has long accused the U.S. government of wanting war, said Sunday that Iran has "zero problems" with average Americans, adding that Iran takes issue with President Donald Trump only.

Hesameddin Ashena, an Iranian politician and upper-echelon member of Rouhani's Moderation and Development Party, made the distinction and has ridiculed the Trump administration's "maximum pressure strategy" for months, frequently mocking the political minutiae and problems emanating from the Trump White House. The top Iranian adviser echoed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's rhetoric, who has previously said "Death to America" chants are directed at U.S. government leaders and not the American people.

"We have ZERO problems with the American people. We even achieved deals with previous US administrations. Our sole problem is Trump. In the event of war, it is he who will bear full responsibility," Ashena wrote on Twitter early Sunday morning.

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I am really pissed about all of this. Trump has got to go. We all need to set aside our misogyny (Warren, Klobochar) and our homophobia (Butteigeg) and our ageism (Bernie, Biden) and unite hard behind someone, anyone, who can beat Trump.

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GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah says he found a classified military briefing from administration officials Wednesday so "upsetting" that he will now back a proposal to limit President Trump's power to take military action against Iran and to reassert Congress' role in authorizing the use of military force.

Lee says that at the Senate briefing about the military strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani was led by administration officials, including Defense Secretary Mike Esper, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and CIA Director Gina Haspel. He said the briefers instructed lawmakers not to ask tough questions about the president's ability to use military force against Iran.

"It was terrible. It was an unmitigated disaster," Lee told Morning Edition host Rachel Martin Thursday.

Lee says his frustration is not over Soleimani's killing.

"It was instead about the possibility of future military action against Iran. And it was on that topic they refused to make any commitment about when, whether and under what circumstances it would be necessary for the president — for the executive branch of government — to come to Congress seeking authorization for the use of military force," he says. "I find that unacceptable."

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Kentucky Senator Rand Paul told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Monday that he believes Congress must have a chance to vote on President Donald Trump's moves toward a war with Iran and has discussed a War Powers Resolution with co-sponsor, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine.

Top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani was killed in a U.S. led drone strike at an airport in Baghdad, Iraq. The attack was authorized by Trump, but Congress was not informed before the military action took place.

After telling Blitzer that Congress was looking at Kaine's War Powers Resolution, Rand said that he has always been in support of declarations of war, but that saying Soleimani posed an imminent threat to U.S. interests was incorrect.

"I think killing a country's major general is an act of war," Paul said. "I don't think you can get away with saying it's 'imminent.' They've been complaining for years about Soleimani. I mean, most of the killings that are attributed to him are, I think, are from the Iraq War. You know, ten years ago or longer. And so, I think that saying this is 'imminent' and saying they don't need the permission of Congress goes against the traditions of our Constitution."

"Whether it's been a Democrat president, I've been a stickler that the way to make war rare is to make it to where you actually have to vote on it in Congress and that it has to be overwhelming," Paul continued. "There have been times—where we were attacked on 9/11, virtually everybody voted to go after those who attacked us. Same way with Pearl Harbor."

"But this is sort of a different situation where no one's really proposing all-out war," Paul explained. "What we're proposing is something that will fester and go on and on and dribs and drabs of intermittent violence for decades, if not generations."

Paul said that Americans were not safer after Soleimani's death, with attacks by Iran against Americans being "much more likely."

"The stated purpose by the administration was that they were going to prevent attacks on Americans," Paul said. "But I think if you ask the question now, is it more or less likely that there will be attacks on Americans, I think it's much more likely. The replacement for Soleimani is basically a clone, somebody who is a hardliner who has worked with Soleimani for 20-some-odd years. While Soleimani may have been plotting attacks and probably was, it's now a certainty that there will be attacks in revenge for his killing."

"Even the Iranians will not be able to approach us on diplomacy until there's adequate revenge to satiate the people who want some kind of revenge," Paul said. "This is sad. I mean, the death of Soleimani is the death of diplomacy with Iran. I don't see an off-ramp. I don't see a way out of this."

Republican Paul did not place the blame for the heightened tension between the U.S. and Iran directly on the president, but claimed Trump received "bad advice" from former national security adviser John Bolton.

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Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who lost both of her legs serving in the Iraq War, on Thursday ripped into the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee who has accused Democrats of being "in love with terrorists."
In an interview Wednesday on Fox News, Republican Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia also claimed, without evidence, that members of the Democratic Party mourn the recent death of top Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani more than they do fallen US service members. No congressional Democrat has mourned Soleimani, whom US officials have blamed for the deaths of hundreds of Americans.

"I'm not going to dignify that with a response. I left parts of my body in Iraq fighting terrorists," Duckworth told CNN's Brianna Keilar on "CNN Right Now." "I don't need to justify myself to anyone."

Asked by Keilar what she thought about Collins suggesting members of her party mourn Soleimani more than fallen service members, Duckworth replied: "I'm disgusted. I would never, ever use Gold Star families, military men and women, or their families, as any pawn in any political game."

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"No, I am not sad that this man is dead. I am glad that he's gone to meet his maker," Duckworth said on Thursday. "But at the end of the day, because of the poor handling by the White House and the consequences of their actions ... American forces are now under greater danger of attack from Iran and other hostile forces in the Middle East."

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Originally posted by pianojuggler:

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Originally posted by wtg:
Just imagine if the Iraqis throw us out...

It looks like that process has started.

https://www.reuters.com/articl...mander-idUSKBN1Z409A

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Iraq’s caretaker prime minister asked the U.S. secretary of state to start working out a road map for an American troop withdrawal from Iraq, his office said Friday, signaling his insistence on ending the U.S. military presence despite recent moves to de-escalate tensions between Iran and the U.S.

Adel Abdul-Mahdi made the request in a telephone call with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday night, his office said in a statement. He also told Pompeo that recent U.S. strikes in Iraq were an unacceptable breach of Iraqi sovereignty and a violation of the two countries’ security agreements.

The Iraqi leader asked Pompeo to “send delegates to Iraq to prepare a mechanism to carry out the parliament’s resolution regarding the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq,” according to the statement.

“The prime minister said American forces had entered Iraq and drones are flying in its airspace without permission from Iraqi authorities and this was a violation of the bilateral agreements,” the statement added.

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The push to remove the U.S. forces comes amid widespread Iraqi anger over being caught in the middle of fighting between Baghdad’s two closest allies. Abdul-Mahdi has said he rejects all all violations of Iraqi sovereignty, including both the Iranian and U.S. strikes.