BREAKING:
1/ So many lines you find yourself wanting to quote: "The last time the United States killed a major military leader in a foreign country was during World War II, when the American military shot down the plane carrying the Japanese admiral Isoroku Yamamoto."
2/ "Officials put the option of killing Soleimani—which they viewed as the most extreme response to recent Iranian-led violence in Iraq—on the menu they presented to Trump. They didn’t think he'd take it. By late Thursday he'd gone for the extreme option. Officials were stunned."
3/ "Trump made the decision, senior officials said, despite disputes in the administration about the significance of what some officials said was a new stream of intelligence that warned of threats to U.S. embassies, consulates and military personnel in Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon."
4/ "Some officials voiced skepticism about the rationale for a strike. According to one official the new intel indicated 'a normal Monday in the Middle East' and Soleimani's travels 'business as usual.' The official described the intel as thin and said an attack wasn't imminent."
5/ "Trump lashed back—promising to strike 52 sites across Iran if Iran attacked Americans/American interests. He warned that some sites were 'at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD.'"
6/ "At Fort Bragg, N.C., some 3,500 soldiers, one of the largest rapid deployments in decades, are bound for the Middle East.
General Soleimani, who was considered the most important person in Iran after Ayatollah Khamenei, was a commanding general of a sovereign government."
General Soleimani, who was considered the most important person in Iran after Ayatollah Khamenei, was a commanding general of a sovereign government."
7/ "Administration officials insisted they did not anticipate sweeping retaliation from Iran—in part because of divisions in the Iranian leadership. But Trump’s two predecessors — Presidents Bush and Obama—had rejected killing Soleimani as too provocative."
"Did not anticipate"?
"Did not anticipate"?
8/ "A December 27 rocket attack on an Iraqi military base outside Kirkuk—which left an American civilian contractor dead—set the killing in motion."
December 28: Trump orders airstrikes.
December 29: Trump's son Eric tweets that "whoop-ass" is coming. He later deletes the tweet.
December 28: Trump orders airstrikes.
December 29: Trump's son Eric tweets that "whoop-ass" is coming. He later deletes the tweet.
9/ "The options [given to Trump] included strikes on Iranian ships or missile facilities or against Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq. The Pentagon also tacked on the choice of targeting Soleimani—mainly to make other options seem reasonable."
That was a colossal fail, then.
That was a colossal fail, then.
10/ "Trump—who aides said had on his mind the 2012 attacks on the U.S. compound in Benghazi—became increasingly angry as he watched images of pro-Iranian demonstrators storming the embassy. Aides said he worried no response would look weak."
I knew this was about his HRC hatred.
I knew this was about his HRC hatred.
11/ "When Trump chose the option of killing Soleimani, top military officials, flabbergasted, were immediately alarmed about the prospect of Iranian retaliatory strikes on American troops in the region...Over the next several days, SOC looked for an opportunity to hit Soleimani."
12/ Hold up: "Over the next several days"? So Trump made the decision to kill Soleimani "several days" before it happened? Someone explain the timeline to me, then. If Trump said airstrikes were enough on December 28—and Soleimani was hit January 2—when did he order the Code Red?
13/ This doesn't make it sound like Trump watched the embassy situation escalate for very long—or possibly even at all—before deciding to escalate his own orders from airstrikes to an assassination.
