There is a deluge of articles pointing out the mindless folly in Trump's ordering the drone attack killing of Iranian Gen. Suleimani. Chris Hedges, in his Sunday article posted on OpEdnews, has described well the possible consequences of this action, likely to throw the entire Mideast, where voices of reason are in the minority, into uncontrolled violence. We should take note of a few important aspects of the situation.
#1. Steven Jones, in his article appearing the same day, and others, point out that the main motive for Trump's decision was to divert attention from the impeachment proceedings stemming from "U" - his shenanigans with the Ukraine. This is an obvious and reasonable assumption based on the timing, and duplicates his strategy of bombing Syria in April 2017 for alleged use of poisonous gas attacks when his ratings were declining after other misdeeds.
#2 The New Yorker posted online a definitive article on Gen. Suleimani from their Sept. 13, 2013 magazine entitled "The Shadow Commander". According to the article, considering the extent of Suliemani's intrigue as commander of Iran's foreign military Qud Force in planning and directing militant attacks throughout the region and beyond over many years, his death should be of no moral concern to the world. As a warrior commonly in foreign lands amidst hostilities, he was vulnerable to his enemies. The U.S. had been stalking him for years before Trump. But his status and importance as a very high level Iranian official should have protected him from assassination, according to conventional protocol.
#3 This event may be compared to the crisis during Ronald Reagan's administration when we sent a military mission into Lebanon to help quell factional fighting there involving Hezbollah - an Iranian-sponsored militant group. The U.S. encampment was terror-bombed, killing 250 marines. The Reagan administration's response was to quickly evacuate all troops, which was a wise decision for a chaotic situation. Present-day Mideast is far more chaotic and our role in il should require more wisdom like Reagan's decision. Much of the Mideast is now a contagious pestilence that should be quarantined until civility and peace can be restored there, even if we have to do without their oil.
#4 The breaking news leaks about a whistleblower in the FBI investigation of a Russian bank underwriting Deutsche Bank's loans to a bankrupt Trump suggest a new level of complication to the impeachment drama. What desperate move will Trump and his accomplices do next as a distraction? What started in his term of office as a cartoon comedy soon turned into a Hollywood action film with government lies and intrigue resembling Italian Mafia/corporate bribery politics; then it became a moral drama of refugees and racism. Now it is an international scandal of treachery that threatens to further undo the delicate state of the world.
One sociopath and his inner circle, taking every advantage of the shortcomings of our constitutional democracy, have abused their power to cover up his crimes and save the fortunes and privileges of their kind to the detriment of the rest of us. The Republican party that continues to support this president is implicated in his crimes and has, effectively, become a worse danger to American values than the Communist Party ever was.
If there is any rationality left in the world of international politics, let us hope that the cycles of
retaliation for such acts will be broken. This could happen with the realization that peoples really do not hate or want to exterminate each other except as, in their ignorance, they have imposed upon them intransigent traditions and belligerent, self-serving authoritarian leaders who persuade them to such actions by duty of patriotism or religion. As we see in the world of today, there are many uprisings against such leadership. When they won't step aside, it is within the province of the peoples' rights to remove them.
In the Hollywood screenplay of the current episode, a man deeply dedicated to democratic principles takes it upon himself to remove the psychopathic leader when the system fails to do so and becomes an international hero. The ending turns out better than the failed attempt on Hitler's life, leading to the virtual destruction of Germany.
