World Watch
Yesterday started without a word from the commander in chief about why he killed the second most powerful man in Iran. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said that we aren’t looking to start a war but we are prepared to finish one. When a reporter asked him if he would resign if Trump gave him an order to violate international law he said, “Barbara, I’m not going to get into hypotheticals. I’m fully confident the commander in chief would not give us an illegal order.”
He would give an illegal order and we can’t finish the wars we’re in now. 18 year olds who have enlisted have never known a time when we weren’t at war.
Reminder: Mark Esper is a former lobbyist for defense contractor Raytheon and the commander in chief, an impeached president, doesn’t have any military experience.
WWIII fun fact: The contractor whose death Trump supposedly avenged was a naturalized US citizen born in Iraq, the kind of American that Trump singles out as not being real Americans and threatens to deport.
Trump invited the press into the Oval Office for a meet and greet with the prime minister of Greece yesterday. He invited Mike Pompeo to sit in on it in case the press asked Trump any questions about Iran that he couldn’t answer.
“We’re prepared to attack if we have to for retribution. Politicians who are trying to win the presidency are the only ones complaining………the memo to Iraq from the Pentagon was a hoax, right, Mike? It was a draft, an unsigned letter, and the media knew it…….impeachment is a partisan witch hunt hoax and the laughing stock around the world. It started before I came down the escalator with the great First Lady……. we have a tremendous Greek population. Over 3 million people as I understand it. That’s fantastic. I really feel I know most of them. I think I know all of them, come to think of it.”
A few hours after Trump blathered on in the Oval Office, Iran fired a dozen ballistic missiles into two Iraqi military bases where US military and coalition personnel were stationed and then went back for more. They hit the same base that Trump said Iran was going to attack before he intervened and saved the world from Soleimani by killing him.
Mike Pence called members of Congress to tell them about the attack because Trump was in over his head.
The Pentagon is saying that Iran intentionally spared killing our troops but Iran says they killed 80 (um, the Pentagon also said that they goofed and accidentally sent a memo to Iraq saying American troops were leaving the country in English and Farsi.)
Qassem Soleimani’s funeral had to be postponed because 56 people were killed in a stampede that broke out during a mourners’ event in his hometown of Kerman.
A Ukrainian passenger plane crashed after takeoff in Tehran after Iran attacked US troops in Iraq. All 176 people on board were killed — 11 Ukrainian, 82 Iranian, 63 Canadian, 3 German, 3 British, 10 Swedish, and 4 Afghans. Iran says it will not hand over the black boxes to Boeing.
Vladimir Putin is in the region. He made an unannounced visit to Damascus yesterday. He goes to Istanbul today to meet with President Erdogan.
Fox News’ Laura Ingraham said Trump is in this situation because he inherited it from Obama and Bush. GOP leader Kevin McCarthy blames Adam Schiff for being so preoccupied with impeachment that he couldn’t keep us safe.
Retired General Barry McCaffrey said, “The American people, I’m confident, don’t understand that we’re right on the verge of high-intensity war in the Persian Gulf.”
“So in just two and one-half months, we have seen Trump make two colossally and increasingly boneheaded, dangerous, and impulsive foreign-policy judgments: the greenlighting of Turkey’s invasion of northeastern Syria, and now mindlessly playing chicken with Iran.” — George Conway
Before any military families were notified about the fate of their sons, daughters, wives, husbands, sisters and brothers, Trump put out a stupid tweet: All is well! Missiles launched from Iran at two military bases located in Iraq. Assessment of casualties & damages taking place now. So far, so good! We have the most powerful and well equipped military anywhere in the world, by far! I will be making a statement tomorrow morning.
Trump addressed the nation for 10 minutes this morning and was half and hour late because he had to keep the world waiting and needed to revel in the attention before making a big important entrance, surrounded by natural light coming from an open door like a halo around Jesus, and flanked by generals and big important people. He asked countries to abandon the Iran Deal and asked NATO to get more involved in the Middle East. He said the US doesn’t need Middle East oil because we have enough of our own, and he bragged about how he rebuilt our military to be the biggest and baddest military ever but he doesn’t want to use it, and then he went into a cotton mouth soliloquy about how great he and America is. He didn’t present any evidence that Soleimani actually presented an imminent threat to America and he didn’t give us any information about what to expect next, just that any funny business from Iran will not be “tolerited.”
“Our president read off that teleprompter with all the sincerity of a teenager forced to apologize for leaving a flaming bag of dog shit on his neighbor’s porch” — Jeff Tiedrich
“Standard Trump play: create an unnecessary crisis, claim credit for it not becoming an even worse crisis, sit back and watch pundits clap like seals.” — Matt Duss
Tomorrow he’s scheduled to do a MAGA rally in Toledo where he will throw out bloody get-the-bad guys bones to his rabid, semi-literate groupies.
The world will be watching.
For a copy of the Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry Report, click here.
For a copy of the Mueller Report, click here.
For a list of attorneys giving legal analysis about the imploding Trump presidency on Twitter, click here.
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