Friday, January 3, 2020

Trump Calls the Iranian Bluff



In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s a new sheriff in town. Gone are the days when American presidents would cower under their desks. Gone are the days when American presidents would react to attacks against our soldiers and citizens with empty threats. Gone are the days when attacks on American embassies and consulates would produce more rhetoric and less action.

When Hezbollah attacked a marine barracks in Beirut, killing nearly 300 troops, Ronald Reagan pulled our troops out of Lebanon. He threatened harsh reprisals and did nothing.

When the Iranian regime invaded the American embassy in Tehran and took our citizens hostage, Jimmy Carter sent a helicopter to rescue them, only to see it crash and burn in the Iranian desert.

When American pilots caught sight of a convoy of Taliban officials escaping the American invasion in the early days of the Afghanistan War, American commanders consulted with lawyers-- who told them not to attack the convoy, because someone might get hurt. 

And, when terrorists attacked the American ambassador in Benghazi, Libya the Obama administration refused to send help, but denounced and jailed a man who had made a video.

When Iranians captured and humiliated American sailors in the Persian Gulf, Secretary of State John Kerry eventually thanked them for releasing the sailors unharmed.

As for the last, the Obama policy in the Middle East involved cozying up with Iran and betraying Sunni Arabs and Israel. Now, with President Trump’s swift and decisive retaliation for the Iran-instigated attack on the American embassy in Baghdad, Democratic chickenshits are cowering in the corner, fearful of the righteous might of Iran. 

If you want to know why the nation is divided against itself, look at the Democratic presidential candidates, trembling in fear, having long since abandoned even the pretense of patriotism. Nothing can stop their will to surrender to terrorism.

Qasem Soleimani had the blood of hundreds, if not thousands of Americans on his hands. The Democrats are horrified that President Trump just reduced him to ashes. I probably don't need to mention it, but if Obama had done exactly the same thing, these same Democrats would have praised him as the most courageous military leader since Alexander the Great.

Eric Nagourney got it right in the New York Times:

In July 2018, after President Trump warned Iran’s president not to threaten the United States, a rejoinder came not from the Iranian leader but from a military figure perhaps even more powerful.

“It is beneath the dignity of our president to respond to you,” Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani declared in a speech in western Iran. “I, as a soldier, respond to you.”
On Friday, General Suleimani was reported killed in an airstrike in Baghdad.

As for who he was, this man whose death strikes such fear in the hearts of cowardly Democrats, the Daily Mail summarizes:

Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed Friday in a US strike, was one of Iran's most prominent figures and a deadly adversary to America and its allies.

As the head of the Quds - or Jersualem - Force of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Soleimani was officially charged with protecting the Islamic revolution, and in practice was used to enforce the regime's will across the Middle East. 

Commonly known as the second most powerful man in Iran, wielding more influence than the president, he was seen by many as a future leader. 

His CV included helping Shia militias to kill hundreds of American troops during the US invasion of Iraq,  backing Assad as he slaughtered civilians by the thousands during the Syrian civil war, and most recently overseeing the slaughter of hundreds of anti-Iran protesters in Iraq. 

In its news story, the Times reports:

General Suleimani was the architect of nearly every significant operation by Iranian intelligence and military forces over the past two decades, and his death was a staggering blow for Iran at a time of sweeping geopolitical conflict.

The strike was also a serious escalation of Mr. Trump’s growing confrontation with Tehran, one that began with the death of an American contractor in Iraq in late December.

The Wall Street Journal reports on the Twitter reaction of John Kerry’s good friend,  the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Javad Zarif:


The US' act of international terrorism, targeting & assassinating General Soleimani—THE most effective force fighting Daesh (ISIS), Al Nusrah, Al Qaeda et al—is extremely dangerous & a foolish escalation.

The US bears responsibility for all consequences of its rogue adventurism.

Zarif is severely upset. He is ready to go to war... or so he says.

Democrats are severely upset. Trump’s action has shown them to be cowards. It has shown that the Obama administration policy of appeasement and submission was a calamity. But it also showed that previous administrations had manifested cowardice, not courage. In effect, Donald Trump just called the terrorist regime’s bluff. 

As opposed to chickenshit Democrats Trump was not cowed into submission by the bluster of Iranian supreme leader Khamenei. Remember when Khamenei said, a few days ago: “American can’t do a damned thing against us.”

Famous last words.

One final point: a lot of senior foreign policy experts, from both Democratic and Republican administrations have a great deal invested in the policy of feckless submission to what they considered to the awesome power of the Iranian mullahs. If these mullahs are now shown to have been bluffing, then clearly our very own foreign policy elites will have been exposed for having miscalculated. 

They, along with the chicken shit Democrats are going to be rooting for Iran to do something really, really bad… to make Trump look bad and to help them to save face.

9 comments:

  1. Good summation, Stuart. A real leader, not a reasonable, hand-wringing facsimile, is courageous as hell, does what needs to be done and lets the chip fall where they may.

    Bring. It. On.

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  2. This perfect decapitation is so sublime at so many levels.

    It reveals the depths of the hatred leftists have for the United States. It allows the Democrats to take the side of Iran in public. It allows us all to see what side our shit media is on (as if we didn't already know). It uncovers all the bodies they thought were buried in the indefensible and corrupt "Iran Deal." It magnifies the Trump Derangement Syndrome tenfold, and irrational and angry people are easier to defeat. It contrasts the will of Trump against the weakness of all that went before. It emboldens all of Iran's enemies around the world; this is a good time to act against Iran, and it may just save Iraq from the ongoing Iran takeover of their country. It also permanently wipes out any further bullshit deals the corrupt US State Dept thought might get onto the table with Iran. This puts Iran on the defensive--and without their senior military leadership. Alexander always targeted the Persian leader, after he dies, their armies collapsed.

    $100 says Israel knew about this execution--even if Schumer did not (LOL). Another $100 says they were in on it. You know the Iranians think Israel was in on it.

    My hot take: this will provoke an uprising against Iran globally, including within Iran, and will force the Iranians to pull the trigger on their sleeper cells early and we will uncover much of their network because they are off-balance and angry. They will make mistakes. They have to move up their plans now, ahead of schedule, and that is to our advantage. And now that the gloves are off, Trump can send our hunter-killer teams to root them out--and alternately expose who has been hiding them.

    And all this is catnip, and doom, for the Democratic Party. They hate Trump so much they will publicly side with Iran. Good. They are boxed in with our enemies.

    Secretly, every American over 50 has wanted someone, somewhere, someplace, to deal Iran the blow Trump just delivered. We've been waiting a long, long time for that shot. And Trump just won the enduring and everlasting respect of every soldier, sailor, and marine in doing so. They have been waiting for payback for a long time, too. He'll need the army when the left makes the move to remove him--and they will.

    Orangeman waits. Tweets. Laughs. And just when you think he's out golfing, the lion comes into your tent. Then, silence in the jungle.

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    1. UbuMaccabee- I could not agree more. This was a thing of beauty - from the intelligence collection, the decision to go, and the execution of the strike. It was decisiveness and competence working in concert. Superb.
      The most scrumptious part though is watching the left. It is astonishing. They are miserable.
      I admit I have mixed feelings about the larger picture. I would dearly love for not another American death to happen in the ME. We have spent way, way too much blood and treasure over there - and for what? I would love for our military to just come home and let these people continue to fight their wars on their own.
      But it is just wonderful to see America defend its own and to do it viciously.

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  3. Thank you, Stuart.

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  4. Orangeman, like Tony the Tiger?

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    1. With cruise missiles. But, yes.

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  5. Amen.

    And--Post script-- WaPo's original headline called him a "revered" military leader. Later changed the adjective to "major."

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  6. So Jeff Bezos(WaPo) thinks/approves of reverencing Soleimani, but then gas second thoughts?

    It's a funny old world.

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  7. Top notch, and well stated. Bravo sir.

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