Yesterday, retired General Kenneth McKenzie wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal about the situation in the Middle East and advocating a dramatically more aggressive policy by the U.S.. General McKenzie may have reached the level of a four-star General but his analysis on foreign relation matters isn't worthy of a Second Lieutenant rank. General McKenzie praised the killing four years ago in Baghdad of Iran Quds Commander Qassem Soleimani on orders by President Donald Trump. That is a terrible analysis; America a guest in Iraq killed a revered Iranian commander who at the time was a guest in Iraq without the approval of the government of Iraq and where there was no imminent threat to Americans lives in Iraq from this guy which would have provided a self defense claim. This incident showed Donald Trump's lack of principle or good character and diplomacy. It reinforced foreign countries worries about America that you cannot fully trust them to act in a principled manner and adhere to the norms of good diplomacy. General McKenzie said in the article that Soleimani was in Iraq to coordinate an attack on our embassy and coalition targets across the region. Whatever Soleimani's role in such alleged attack plans it did not rise to the importance of disrespecting Iraq's sovereignty remember Soleimani was just an implementer of Iran policy if Iran had some major plan to attack the U.S. embassy Soleimani's death wouldn't have stopped it. America and our major allies had the goal at the time and still have to try to pull Iraq out of the Iranian orbit Iraq has a sizable Sunni population it is needed to play the role of unifier between the Sunni and Shia world; this killing of Soleimani set back this policy goal and hurt America's reputation in the Muslim world! General McKenzie is advocating for strong military action against the Houthis in Yemen for their attacks on international shipping in the Bab-el Mandeb Strait at the mouth of the Red Sea. General McKenzie's position seems to be calling for the bombing Houthi sites in Yemen, his view seems to be that will stop the attacks and this will end the matter with no significant fall out to America's interests. This analysis is as stupid as stupid can be; America should absolutely and definitely defend and protect ships ours and others traveling under legitimate international authority in the area, shooting down missiles and drones fired at such ships and Houthi vessels trying to hijack or damage such ships. But America at this time should refrain from bombing sites in Yemen, the Houthis are doing all these hostile acts to stop the Israeli Defense Forces war in Gaza and the killing, starving and extreme deprivation of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. America attacking sites in Yemen will be perceived by the Arab and Muslim worlds as America being complicit in the ongoing deaths of significant numbers of Palestinian civilians. America and this is no advocacy for a policy reversal by America (the issue is too complicated) but America's failure to take a more hard line stance against the IDF military operation in Gaza which is causing ongoing deaths of Palestinian civilians and a humanitarian catastrophe upon them is causing anti-American and anti-West posturing and policy changes in the Arab and Muslim world. Just this past week Saudi Arabia joined the BRICS alliance, this alliance includes our enemy Russia and dangerous adversary China - does anyone really think this would have happened during this past September, it is because of the war in Gaza. America needs to be very careful about aggression over the fallout of this war it needs to be always standing behind the self-defense defense because otherwise we will just be making Russia and China stronger to our costly detriment!
