Early fallout from Soleimani assassination is all bad

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sat, 01/04/2020 - 12:58pm

The Iranians will strike back eventually, but the costs are already adding up.

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We've long since left international law behind.
Russia and China have to think "Could we be next?"

A host of world leaders, including from Russia, Turkey, and several European countries, condemned the US drone strike that killed Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the leader of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, as he left Baghdad International Airport late Thursday.
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Agnès Callamard, the United Nations' special rapporteur for extrajudicial killings, condemned Thursday's attack, arguing that it "most likely" violated international law in part because the US hadn't faced an "imminent threat" and the strike killed at least six other people.

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The fight against actual terrorists has been harmed.

Nato has suspended ongoing efforts to fight Isis in Iraq amid demands by Iran and its allies for revenge against the US following the killing of an Iranian leader by American forces.

Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations has warned the US “has started a military war by an act of terror” with the killing of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani

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We are about to get kicked out of Iraq again.

Rival Shi’ite political leaders on Friday called for American troops to be expelled from Iraq after a U.S. air strike in Baghdad killed a senior Iranian general, in an unusual show of unity among factions that have squabbled for months.

How can the neocons and chickenhawks justify results like this?

Tags: 
Soleimani
iraq
Iran
War
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Submitted by The Voice In th... on Sat, 01/04/2020 - 1:15pm

Because they have nukes ad the means to deliver them. Trump can't even stop groveling to North Korea.

Bullies only pick on the defenseless.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 01/04/2020 - 1:35pm
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and elsewehere in Iraq. Iraqis are being warned to stay well away from US bases.

I love this tweet!

ICYMI in other essays.

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A leftist is someone with morally correct politics. A liberal is someone who wants to feel morally correct w/o ever putting themselves at odds with power or costing themselves opportunities or experiencing the uncomfortable emotions that truth causes.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sat, 01/04/2020 - 1:45pm

The only guy who all of the militias would obey.
Now there's no way to enforce peace

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Submitted by dervish on Sat, 01/04/2020 - 2:38pm
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@gjohnsit that Soleimani had, especially in the short term. They're all unified around the idea that this was an intolerable outrage. Further in-fighting in Iraq likely won't continue until the US threat is dealt with, and evicted.

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

Submitted by Not Henry Kissinger on Sat, 01/04/2020 - 2:21pm
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Gee, can't imagine why.

Top Israeli commanders meet to discuss Soleimani’s assassination

Israeli defence authorities and national army leaders held a security meeting in Tel Aviv on Friday after Iran’s top Quds Force General Qassem Soleimani was killed in a US airstrike at Bagdad International Airport.

The photographs show Israeli Minister of Defence Naftali Bennett and Chief of Israel Defence Forces Aviv Kochavi meeting with top security officials to assess the situation. Members of the security cabinet were instructed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to give public comments on the event.

Unconfirmed reports say they all called their life insurance brokers after the meeting.

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25 users have voted.
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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

Submitted by dervish on Sat, 01/04/2020 - 4:20pm
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@Not Henry Kissinger is that Naftali Bennett hates Bibi's guts, and is probably telling the others that he's leading them into the abyss. They have never been more divided.

They have a fair bit of clout here with the IC, especially since ours is so deficient in regional analysts. I'm guessing that this came from Bibi, and now Bennett is trying to figure out how to clean up the mess, and maybe 86 Bibi as well.

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

Submitted by Not Henry Kissinger on Sun, 01/05/2020 - 2:42am
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@dervish @dervish

I'm guessing that this came from Bibi, and now Bennett is trying to figure out how to clean up the mess, and maybe 86 Bibi as well.

'Sacrificing' Bibi to the Iranians WOULD cure a few headaches for the Israeli political elites....

Netanyahu Has Realized He Has Nothing to Lose

Netanyahu’s whole purpose during the past year, in which he dragged Israel into three elections and inflicted on it an unprecedented political and constitutional crisis – all with the help of spineless collaborators in Likud and the right-wing bloc – was to avoid having to seek immunity. He is aware of its serious damage, to the punishment it will elicit from the electorate, a punishment that will be meted out not only to him but to his party as well.

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For the premier, the best-case scenario would be a fourth election, and then a fifth, and so on into deep into the new decade. He’d like to go straight from Balfour to the Great Leaders of the Nation section on Mount Herzl – at the age of 120, of course, during a period of a who-knows-which transition government, when Israel will be in a state of collapse, something like Venezuela today.

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7 users have voted.
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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

Submitted by jbob on Sun, 01/05/2020 - 7:25am

@Not Henry Kissinger Here is a link to an article from the times of israel about a "secret agreement" between Rump and Bibi.

Israel and the United States have secretly signed a far-reaching joint memorandum of understanding providing for full cooperation to deal with Iran’s nuclear drive.

Israeli TV network Channel 10 first reported the pact.

The document was signed on December 12 at the White House.

Link to article

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Submitted by Not Henry Kissinger on Sun, 01/05/2020 - 2:44pm
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@jbob

"Netanyahu and Trump sign pact to fight Iran to the last American."

Good link. Thanks.

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5 users have voted.
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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

Submitted by davidgmillsatty on Sun, 01/05/2020 - 9:59am

@Not Henry Kissinger They popped the cork on a bottle of champagne. Wink, wink.

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Submitted by The Voice In th... on Sat, 01/04/2020 - 2:34pm

Need to GO!

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13 users have voted.
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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Submitted by The Liberal Moonbat on Sat, 01/04/2020 - 3:48pm
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It was he, decades ago now, who said "I think we should take Iraq and Iran and combine them into one country and call it Irate."*

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

Submitted by CB on Sat, 01/04/2020 - 4:19pm
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Submitted by CB on Sat, 01/04/2020 - 5:09pm
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Trump has set a course for which there is no return.

(There is much, much more to this report than I give in this small synopsis. I advise you to read it in it's entirety.)

The Revenge For The Assassination Of Qassem Soleimani

The Trump administration is telling fairytales about its murder of Major General Qassem Soleimani. He was not planing any "imminent attacks" on the U.S. or its interests in Iraq. Reports which claim that while calling Katyusha rockets "sophisticated weapons" can obviously be ignored. In no way was Soleimani a legitimate target for a U.S. attack. No Orwellian State Department briefing can change that.

Fact is that Trump is following the plan of the Foundation of the Defense of Democracy (FDD)...
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FDD was tasked by Israel to instigate a U.S. war on Iran. Following FDD's plans Trump and his advisors are trying to provoke Iran to retaliate in a way that allows them to launch such a war.
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For Donald Trump everything is just a deal. But it is obvious that Iran will reject all such offers. It can not ideologically justify abstaining from revenge for its most prominent martyr in exchange for some material benefit. Trump will not get this but for Iran it is simply unthinkable and impossible.
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The removal of U.S. forces from Iraq will be the first act of revenge for Qassem Soleimani's death. More will follow in due time and with the appropriate severity.

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Submitted by davidgmillsatty on Sun, 01/05/2020 - 10:06am

@CB from an occupation since (never???). We have left a few times on our own timetable. Last I can recall was Vietnam. But we don't have an American populace today that will put the heat on its government, the way we did in 1968. Not close.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 01/04/2020 - 5:57pm
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Thanks Obama for not listening to people who said that you can't leave Trump with the power that you took. What? Nothing to say?

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A leftist is someone with morally correct politics. A liberal is someone who wants to feel morally correct w/o ever putting themselves at odds with power or costing themselves opportunities or experiencing the uncomfortable emotions that truth causes.

Submitted by WoodsDweller on Sat, 01/04/2020 - 7:08pm
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Selective Service website crashed by people worrying about being drafted to fight in Iran war

Any chance all those young people will bother voting for an anti-war candidate?

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

Submitted by davidgmillsatty on Sun, 01/05/2020 - 10:09am

@WoodsDweller Drone away. Perfecting AI.

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Submitted by Hawkfish on Sun, 01/05/2020 - 2:04pm
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@WoodsDweller

Will There Be a Draft? Young People Worry After Military Strike

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We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg

Submitted by RantingRooster on Sun, 01/05/2020 - 10:43am
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I think to myself, maybe ending things quickly in the blast furnace of a nuclear detonation is the way to go. Humanity is in full Denial.

[video:https://youtu.be/WePJ-EEZN_M]

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C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

Submitted by Hawkfish on Sun, 01/05/2020 - 2:06pm
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@RantingRooster

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We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg