President Donald Trump’s order to assassinate Iranian General Qasem Suleimani on Thursday night even caused shock and alarm among Pentagon officials, according to a new report from the New York Times.
The killing of Suleimani has sent shockwaves across the Middle East and around the world as fears of a major war between the United States and Iran reach unprecedented heights. The Iranians are already striking back through cyberattacks and several potential American targets in the Middle East are on high alert.
It turns out that while the Pentagon offered up the killing of Suleimani as a potential plan of action against Iran, the Pentagon only meant it as such an absurd option that Trump would choose a different plan. Of course, while this strategy may have worked on past presidents, Trump is a madman who does not know what he is doing. So he is more likely to pick the most absurd idea.
“Top Pentagon officials were stunned,” the New York Times reported over the weekend”
“Mr. Trump made the decision, senior officials said on Saturday, despite disputes in the administration about the significance of what some officials said was a new stream of intelligence that warned of threats to American embassies, consulates and military personnel in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon,” the report continued. “General Suleimani had just completed a tour of his forces in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, and was planning an ‘imminent’ attack that could claim hundreds of lives, those officials said.”
So, there were disputes about the intelligence that such an attack was “imminent,” which sounds awfully like the disputes surrounding intelligence that led to the war in Iraq in 2004.
Unfortunately, many Pentagon officials only privately voiced their concerns, thereby allowing Trump to take an action that could have very well sparked World War III.
“Some officials voiced private skepticism about the rationale for a strike on General Suleimani, who was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American troops over the years,” the report stated. “According to one United States official, the new intelligence indicated “a normal Monday in the Middle East” — Dec. 30 — and General Suleimani’s travels amounted to ‘business as usual.’ When Mr. Trump chose the option of killing General Suleimani, top military officials, flabbergasted, were immediately alarmed about the prospect of Iranian retaliatory strikes on American troops in the region.”
And they should be. Trump’s decision to kill Suleimani has not made the world safer. Any plans Suleimani had are likely still in play and whoever replaces him as the commander of the Quds force could be much worse.
Now hardline Iranian officials are itching to attack American targets, and the Revolutionary Guard is ready to take revenge for their fallen leader.
If anything, the Pentagon should never offer Trump another absurd option ever again. Because it’s clear that those plans are the ones he wants to choose. And that puts our nation in serious jeopardy.
Featured Image: Wikimedia
