I was so happy to get back to Canada just in time to see the last sunset of 2019.
And I was looking forward to enjoying a slightly more peaceful year in 2020.
So imagine how I feel to see us such a short time later, teetering on the edge of World War III.
Thanks to the reckless behaviour of the deranged and depraved Donald Trump.
Iranian leaders issued strident calls on Friday for revenge against the United States after the killing of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani in an overnight airstrike at the Baghdad airport.
The strike, regarded by analysts as perhaps the riskiest American move in the Middle East since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, threatened to tip hostilities with the United States and its partners across the region into a new war.
Who not only killed an Iranian general revered by millions all over the Middle East, in the most cowardly manner.
But bragged about it:
And followed that up by claiming that he ordered the killing to save American lives.
President Trump said on Friday that he ordered the operation that killed Iran’s top security and intelligence commander not just to retaliate for past attacks on Americans, but also to forestall an active effort “to kill many more” Americans, as the region braced for a possible escalation in violence.
When in fact Suleimani's assassination will almost certainly lead to a tsunami of violent attacks on Americans in the Middle East and all over the world.
For the attack is nothing less than a declaration of war.
The United States is now at war with Iran. This is the inescapable result of President Donald Trump’s order to assassinate Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Quds Force, arguably the most powerful military leader in the Middle East, and the most important person in Iran, except for the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
No one can confidently predict what might happen next. But those who don’t grasp the essence of what happened Thursday night—that Donald Trump declared war on Iran—are kidding themselves.
It can only be seen as an attempt to distract Americans from Trump's impeachment hearings, while launching his re-election campaign.
As well as providing some cover for the criminal problems of Trump's good buddy Benjamin Netanyahu.
Who like Trump also belongs in jail.
And it can only favour the strategic interests of Russia and China who will be able to take advantage of the bloody chaos that ensues to advance their own interests.
Which in the world we live in, with a President like Trump, could very easily lead to World War III...
But then nobody should be surprised when Trump telegraphed his move or, projected it, seven years ago.
And as I said on Twitter only the American people can save us now...
Impeach him, remove him, put the soon to be war criminal on trial.
Send him to the place where he belongs.
Before he kills us all...
You folks up there have radiation-proof igloos or something, right? Any room in the Diefenbunker? Does JT have an underground greenhouse or a Fortress of Solitude?
ReplyDeleteI don't think Trump is going to have a coalition of the willing this time. Not when he has done so much to alienate allies and aggravate a war-weary public who still haven't recovered from Dubya's misadventures. As for all those idiots I see on social media posting conspiratorial nonsense that Trudeau is getting wasted on his holiday, all I can say is he damn well has earned some much-needed R&R after the hellstorm he just went through. He will need all the "energy reserves" he can muster to contend with President Strangelove and a party full of IDU-sponsored GOP North traitors at home who would gladly be thumping the drums of war.
But if all else fails, he and every other Canadian has every right to refuse to fight Trump's battles for ego and oil supremacy, and just sit on a beach, smoke a bowl and watch the world burn. Sadly, unless this raving, paranoid lunatic is removed from office either through impeachment, election loss or hamberder-induced heart attack, the lot of us may have no other choice.
Happy New Year... 🤦♀️
Hi Jackie....No, we don't have any radiation-proof igloos, but that's OK, because all we'll need is a sturdy home with picture windows so we can watch Trump meltdown. For after a few months of terrorist attacks, cyberwar, economic chaos, and the feeling that we've seen this nightmare before, Trump's numbers should take quite a hit and just in time for the election. As for Justin Trudeau he can afford to work on his tan, for our Trumplings are going down with their leader....
DeleteThere are a bunch of scenarios here . The longer Iran doesnt retaliate the more twitchy Trump will get - no patience there.
ReplyDeleteJamming up the straits of Hormuz , drone swarms of Saudi oil installations , cyber attacks on Isreali water, Saudi pipeline pumps , US electric grids etc are all ways of economic disruption without overt military action. Iran has already tested these methods .
May you live in interesting times.
Hi rumleyfips....Iran will strike when it judges the time to be right, and as you point out it isn't lacking for targets. After four years of Trump craziness, I suspect this totally unnecessary crisis will be the straw that breaks the camel's back....
DeleteIt seems like only yesterday that Trump abandoned the Kurds by pulling troops out of Syria so that Turkey could move in and slaughter and displace thousands of the very people who helped the Americans defeat ISIS. Betrayed and left to die for what? A few Trump towers built in Turkey or some other nefarious reason? I'd bet it was to his benefit in some way, shape or form.
ReplyDeleteAnd now, the clown President who claimed he wanted to end America's endless wars goes and takes out the number two leader in Iran. He was no saint and deserved to be taken out but why now, in this way, taking out an Iraqi General as well. Again, I'd bet this was done to benefit Trump by distracting from his impeachment and recent revelations that it was in fact he who halted the aid to Ukraine. His corrupted AG, Bullshit Barr tried to cover it up but when the stench of corruption is this bad it's bound to be discovered.
It always was and always will be about how Trump can benefit from his outrageous, ill-conceived actions on a domestic and global scale, repercussions be damned. The blood that will be shed will be on his hands and I have no doubt, there will be blood.
JD
Hi JD....I'm not sure that Trump knows what he is doing. I believe that the embassy storming in Baghdad had him thinking Benghazi, and he struck out in panic. I don't think he realized the cult status of Suleimani and even paused to think what might happen next. Iran is the country that used to have boys and old men clear mine fields during the Iran Iraq War with their bare feet, so those who sow the wind will reap the whirlwind....
Deletelike they retaliated for the shooting down of a passenger airliner, not. America and Mossad has more Iranians on the goverment payroll than Iran.
DeleteTrump has called their bluff, unless they are sucicdal, nothing but rhetoric.
O/T and FYI: New Con puppet installed on June 27. Same day as Pride.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/conservative-leadership-vote-scheer-1.5414024
Call a spring election so we can be rid of these lying assholes and their fake "rebranding" already.
When Bad guys die, we should all be happy. This guy was Iranian version of Dick Cheney. As Mao Tse Sung said, power grows out of the barrel of a gun. So Trump took out a bad guy and no one is going to do anything.
ReplyDeleteSpoken like a true Boomer, Steve.
DeleteHi Steve....That's a cartoon view of the world. Suleimani was no Dick Cheney. You and I may not revere him, but he was revered by millions all over the Middle East, so the decision to assassinate him is a catastrophic strategic mistake. And to suggest that the Iranians will do nothing to avenge his death is simply ridiculous....
Deleteyour comparison is bogus! more likely he is the one single handedly the most responsible for the defeat of isis and keeping the shia militants in line and not acting like their sunni counterparts. nobody is safer now. not all right wingers are terrorists but all terrorists are right wingers. guaranteed religious.
DeleteAs usual Simon you have the best take on this truly frightening situation. It is the start of a war between the U.S. and Iran. The Iranians will retaliate, Trump will order more strikes, the Iranians will respond and before long we will be in an all out war. It's madness period.
ReplyDeleteHi anon....Thank you, but I am merely repeating what others are saying. The Iranians will retaliate and it could lead to an escalation that can only end in war. The bloated syphilitic Trump is thrashing around in the deep end of the pool, sooner or later he will go down.. And all we can hope for is that he doesn't take the rest of the world down with him....
DeleteIt was Saudi nationals adhering to an offshoot of the Sunni religion that perpetrated the 9/11 attack. Ironically Bush used the attacks to launch a proxy war on their behalf against rival Shia controlled interests in the middle east. Essentially American Christians doing the fighting for politically powerful non Christian interests. The Obama administration saw the insanity and started the process of extracting themselves without upsetting the balance of power between the various religious groups seeking to dominate the region. Trump trashed the sanity, and the proxy war seems to be back on the table but with a twist as the Trump-Putin crime cartel likely have back channel agreements that did not exist during the Bush era. The numbers may vary depending on whether the conflict stays a back channel scam or escalates for real, either way working class Americans will be killed because their leader reactivated involvement in a religious war on behalf of others and their financial clout. Always follow the money .... unfortunately for Iran it seems to be severely outclassed and unable to hire a proxy to do their bidding. Backing them into a corner does not seem to be a smart move but neither is putting any trust in the cast of characters involved in this ploy. Just one more piece of negative ballast in our life boat as we attempt to navigate turbulent waters.
ReplyDeleteRT
Rich countries trade $$ as the source of power, poor countries trade lives, gangsters trade both.
DeleteRT
Hi RT....It's an interesting fact that in all the years of Middle East upheaval the Shia have never attacked the U.S as have the Sunnis. But most American can't tell the two apart, and now they are going to get educated the hard way. What makes all this even worse is that the young people of Iran have been in the streets demanding an end to Mullah rule, and now the Americans will force them to close ranks with those they despise. Trump says he wants regime change, but has just made that harder than ever....
DeleteThis was an act of madness and while I believe that Trump formally ordered it I strongly suspect that it was a Washington cabal with Israeli support that dreamt up this wildly criminal and criminally stupid idea. From all we have seen, Trump does not have enough knowledge of Middle Eastern affairs to target Qassem Soleimani and had no concept of his importance to Iran, Iraq, Syria,Hezbollah and so on.
ReplyDeleteIraq, and most of the rest of the world cannot be too impressed to see the USA assassinate two senior military officers; one, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, an Iraqui and one the senior commander of their closest ally. BTW, in the Middle East, I think General Soleimani can be compared more General Eisenhower at the end of WWII than to any current US military figures.
@ Simon
I have to disagree with
And it can only favour the strategic interests of Russia and China who will be able to take advantage of the bloody chaos that ensues to advance their own interests.
Russia is a near neighbour. The last thing it wants is bloody chaos in the Middle East. The key reason that Russia got involved in Syria was to prevent Syria collapsing into a failed state. It does not want chaos.
In China's case it wants stability in the region to allow it to develop trade both locally and with Europe as part of the Belt and Road Initiative. Chaos and war threatens key trading partners and trading routes.
You are correct that both countries try to capitalize on termoil and even war but that is self-defence. They were already doing just fine and chaos can only hurt them, at least in the short run.
Of course, the fabled US incompetence may greatly favour them in the long run.
Hi jrkrideau....I don't necessarily mean that Russia and China want more turmoil in the Middle East. But in the superpower game the troubles of one can only favour the others. Could China take advantage of the situation to press its territorial claims in the South China Sea or even its claim to Taiwan? I don't think we can rule anything out at this point, and the more superpower friction can only make the world a more dangerous place...
Delete@ Steve6:16 PM
ReplyDeleteDo you actually know anything about the Middle East? Had you ever heard of General Soleimani before yesterday?
I know Iran is a far more democratic western country than Saudi Arabia. I have been to Dubai.
DeleteHi jrkrideau...l doubt even Trump was aware of the 40-year-history of the man he ordered killed in between games of golf. I doubt he knew of Soleimani's crucial role in the war against ISIS, or how he helped the Americans fight the Taliban. According to what've read he was leading the charge to try to bring Iran and the U.S. closer together, until George Bush suddenly adopted David Frum's Axis of Evil, included Iran in that cabal, and blew everything to smithereens. Ignorance it seems is determined to kill us all...
DeleteNo more wars for Israel.
ReplyDeleteHi anon...As I mentioned in my post the Netanyahu government must be delighted to have another major distraction, to try to make Israelis forget that their leader is a corrupt crook. But
DeleteIf a war breaks out they will also regret what has happened.
Trump has called Iran's bluff. Things might be messy economically at home, but all the dead people will be in the middle east.
ReplyDeleteSame in Korea, if Trump wants to sacrifice millions of South Koreans, it will not mean anything back home.
The slimebag right. Issues of sexual orient, drug addiction etc are not national topics. These are human rights and medical issues that do not deserve national attention.
ReplyDeleteThese are resolved issues, lets move on to important stuff.
Hi Steve..Trump hasn't called anyone's bluff. It.'s a massive strategic blunder. Nobody will be safe anywhere from those seeking revenge. The Middle East is teetering on the edge of all out war. The Iraqis want to kick the Americans out of that country which could allow ISIS to recover. And all that chaos could cause a recession. So try to think of the big picture and stop treating the depraved Trump like he was some kind of hero....
ReplyDelete