Israel: US Asks Iran to Not Sink an American Carrier, “Just Kill Some Troops Instead”

I totally agree.

However, I do NOT see this assassination as being a positive step toward that objective.

 

I don't know why you are going on about the SOFA. We conducted combat operations until 2011 and resumed them in 2014. If this is just you throwing confetti in the air to distract from your earlier claims that under Obama we only conducted training and support, you were wrong, it's time to move on.

As for Soleimani, you still haven't sourced your claim that he was on a diplomatic mission. I would love to read a credible source that Iran would send the Quds Force commander to discuss anti-Iranian demonstrations with Iraqi government officials. So far it seems like you have been making stuff up simply to take Iran's side.

 

Why not? It seems to me it was an in your face answer to a government that recognized no boundaries to their behavior. Now they have something different to consider.

 

LIke what? More assassinations?? What is THAT going to gain us?

I've pointed out what our acts under this administration have COST us.

 

They've cost us nothing. This is the best President we could have elected for this time.

 

In Iraq, Soleimani had recently taken on a larger political role. He met with Iraqi political figures to secure support for the country's embattled prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, whom he planned to meet on the day he was killed.

https://www.businessinsider.com/what-qassem-soleimani-was-doing-in-iraq-before-assassination-2020-1

 

What wasn't under debate was our role in combat operations in Iraq - which was determined by the SOFA to be one of training and support of the Iraqi military - not combat missions of our leadership or determination.

Let's try to keep this less than totally political. The three presidents of this decade have all had a shot at this. And, the situations they each faced have been FAR from identical.

 

I do not even slightly accept that.

We've lost our consortium of allies working in alliance toward reigning in Iran.

We've lost nuclear inspections.

We've lost our standing as a trusted nation by our allies in that we can't hold agreements we make - in fact, we don't value our allies.

We've raised opposition to the USA in Iran.

We've raised opposition to the USA in Iraq - to the extent that their parliamnent voted for our entire military presence to be removed.

We have regional allies telling us they don't want more of this.

The escalation contributed directly to the destruction of an airlines flight that included both Iranians and students and families returning to Canada - much like our own shoot down of Iranian flight 655 by the USS Vinscennes.

And, this is against no gain of any kind. Our president has totally failed to justify the assassination, with the administration flip flopping repeatedly on why thise event happened while claiming intel that our intel agencies state does not exist. Yesterday, he claimed that it wouldn't matter if his excuse of imminent attack were false!

We clearly have NO idea of what we're doing in the ME. And, whether we have EVER had such an idea is both questionable and not the issue.

 

We HAD real powers opposing Iran.

We even had inspectors examining nuclear facilities. Even Russia agreed to that.

Had we maintained the negotiated settlement with Iran, all signees would be on the hook for defending the deal they had signed. At any time, there could have been a reconvention that would recognize Iran breaking the deal and could have taken appropriate action. The action taken could not be pitched as no more than the US hating Iran. And, new sanctions could include more than just the USA.

But, we destroyed that. Now, we've taken more unilateral action affecting our allies.

Do NOT claim you want us to work with our allies when you come on this board daily to trash the very IDEA of working with our allies.

 

That agreement is dead and good riddance. Things seem to be progressing though and maybe the Ayatollah's will get tossed out and Iran can get back to living.

Which allies are you wanting us to work with?

 

Have you watched the news reports lately? They don't seem to hate us quite so much now, thanks to President Trump the witch is dead.

 

Damn hard to train some one when you have troops their to do the training. Might be why ISIS went through them like crap through a goose.

 

There is no single person short of perhaps the Ayatollah whose assassination by the US would cause any change.

And, killing that guy would be about like them assassinating the Pope - a heinous act which would be remembered for eternity. And, the change caused by that would be everything we don't want.

 

Popes have been assassinated so I suppose Ayatollahs can be too. I think this regime is either going to undergo some drastic changes or Iran is going to change leadership. That airliner may have been the straw.

 

Meeting with militia commanders doesn't sound like a diplomatic mission. Has either Iraq or Iran made the claim that he was on a diplomatic mission?

Also...

• Qassem Soleimani was on a not-so-secret trip to Iraq to meet with politicians and military allies when the US assassinated him in Baghdad last week.
• We now know his trip likely had a secret component: coordinating an intensifying campaign of rocket strikes to maim and kill some of the 5,000 American troops based there.

LOL! Sounds like diplomacy to me.

 

The Iranian Henry Kissinger.

 

Multitasking.

Qassem Soleimani was on a not-so-secret trip to Iraq to meet with politicians and military allies when the US assassinated him in Baghdad last week.

 

1- You mean those allies that were already circumventing the sanctions in place...
2- You never had any.
3- There was no treaty. It was a personal agreement from Obama, not a treaty with the USA. Obama is gone now.
4- So the went from raving lunatics chanting death to the USA to mad raving lunatics chanting death to the USA.
5- Iraq is controlled by Shia alligned with Iran and as been for quite a while. It was a totally partisan votes along sectarian lines.
6- Who cares!
7- Not the same thing at all. Flight 655 was a setup, the ukrainian flight was a proof that the Iranians are morons.

And the gain is that the head honcho of the Quds force is gone. If the world had done the same with Guderian, Rommel, Malmstein in 1939, the world would be an even better place.

 

A trip that just happened to coincide with an attack on an American embassy.

One of them coinkydinks ya figger?

 

Probably not.
But the boys were probably going to do the embassy over the killing of their 25 guys for killing an American contractor.

 

We stripped all the trained military leadership from the Iraqi military with our "deBaathification" program.

Then, we noticed that we had left those military experts available to use by Sunni opposition, including those forcefully coopted by insurgent groups.

Beyond that, AQI/ISIS were totally committed. Even thought they didn't have national resources at their disposal, they could certainly take on the weak, poorly trained and divided Iraqi military.

We needed Sunnis on our side. Instead, we picked Maliki whose objecive was the elmination of Sunnis.

You need to put together more than a list of retorts.

The multinational agreement doesn't become a nonissue simply because Senate Republicans refused to ratify it.

That only brought up the question of whether it is even possible to form an agreement with the US.

Today, other nations are workng on negotiations with Iran based on Iran's signiture to that deal. And, Trump is not part of that - though he certainly made negotiations monumentally harder.

With his actions on Iran, Trump isn't leading anthing that could possibly be considered positive for any country on Earth - outside of Russia, possibly.

 

If the senate doesn't ratify it then it isn't legaly binding. Obama should have played by the rule.

 

That still doesn't sound diplomatic. "Military allies" are Shia militia groups, not functionaries of the legitimate government. And which politicians? If during the troubles an IRA rep visited a Boston politician, would that make it a diplomatic mission?

It's bizarre to me that you guys on the left seem so anxious to ally yourselves with Islamic radicals. I shouldn't have to be explaining this to...well any Westerner. Can you explain the left's defense of Islamic terror that's been going on the past week?

 

Most of Obama's 2nd term work was done by edict to circumvent a Congress he couldn't lead. They can be removed the same way and Trumps work will be just as vulnerable if Republicans lose control of the government.

We all lament the chasm that divides this country and a good many of us remember when our legislators could find a compromise on most issues. I think that was because we were mostly all on the same page when it comes to government. We all wanted much the same things out of government and could find some degree of agreement on core issues. That is no longer the case, we are truly divided on issues that matter, nobody compromises.