Here are my observations and opinions from my selected news of the day.
AN MQ-9 REAPER drone like the one used to attack Soleimani’s vehicle. (washingtontimes.com)
GOOD RIDDENCE to Qasem Soleimani, who was Iran’s Quds Force leader, until he met his death by missiles fired from an American MQ-9 Reaper drone as his convoy left Baghdad International Airport shortly after he stepped off a plane from Syria.
Fox News Channel’s Pentagon spokesperson, Jennifer Griffin, said Soleimani, as commander of the Revolutionary Guards terrorism force, routinely travelled throughout the Middle East, even Russia, seemingly unconcerned for his security, however, a network of surveillance and intelligence contacts were always aware of his movements.
President Trump, who has shown considerable restraint following previous provocations, apparently decided it was time to stop Soleimani’s reign of terror with the loss of life of an American contractor and the attack on our embassy in Iraq. It is believed that Soleimani had arrived in Iraq to direct further attacks on our interests there.
Trump tweeted that Soleimani should have been taken out long ago. Reports now surfacing reveal previous efforts to eliminate him were passed up by the Bush and Obama administrations, including how Obama foiled Israel’s plan to assassinate Soleimani in 2015.
In 2015, during the Obama team’s effort to make a nuclear deal with Iran, “the deal is with the hard men of the regime, the extremists – the deal is with Qasem Soleimani,” wrote Lee Smith, then senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.
Among all of the photographs taken during negotiations, Iran Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif is their negotiator. While we often see file footage of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani, have no doubt, Soleimani was the real leader in Iran.
When the deal was signed in July 2015, some saw the lifting of sanctions and the arms embargo, as a real problem “like loading a gun and handing it over to Qasem Soleimani,” wrote Smith, “and that’s precisely what Obama had intended: The way he sees it, he’s arming an American ally. “Mark my word, in the weeks ahead the role of the Obama White House, including then Secretary of State John Kerry will find its way into the friendly media.
MEANWHILE, Democrats, including the sorry batch of presidential candidates, and their media toadies are questioning the president’s decision and predicting war with Iran. Of course, they could all be counted on to complain that the president failed to ask their permission. Can you imagine the leaks?
On MSNBC’s, Lawrence O’Donnell show, one of the members of a panel of former Obama officials, said, “Let’s assume for a minute that he was at the Baghdad airport and deserved this. Let’s just stipulate that. Let’s just say maybe it was the right decision to take him out. But you have in that case right decision, wrong commander in chief.”
On the BBC, the network’s Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet called the action against Soleimani “murder.”
THEN THERE’S the multiple appearances of bleeding-heart liberal Marie Harf, former Obama/Kerry apologist, on Fox News Channel. The audacity of Harf to seek credibility after being a part of Ben Rhodes’ scheme to pull the wool over the eyes of the media during the negotiations with Iran is unbelievable. Her demands to know the Trump administration’s strategic planning is outrageous.
INCIDENTALLY, Ben Rhodes accused Trump of basing his foreign policy on Obama envy, domestic politics, Saudi interests and magical right wing thinking.” It’s what you might expect from a creative writing student who was an Obama “yes” man.
REMINDING US of the attack on our Benghazi compound when our ambassador Chris Stevens’ pleaded for military support, Razor wrote @hale_razor: “We sent a hundred Marines to beef up security at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, and our ambassador didn’t even have to send 29 cables for begging for them first.”
TRUMP’S LEGITIMACY – While doing some research, I came across an article, “The Fundamental Legitimacy of Donald Trump: The democracy-is-doomed crowd was wrong. Trump’s tyranny has never materialized,” written by Shadi Hamid, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, in The Atlantic. I don’t know how I missed it when it first appeared on April 11, 2019.
He wrote of the Mueller investigation making hollow the charges of collusion against Trump and his team, citing that the collusion claim was a way of saying that Trump was illegitimately elected. “Citizens should be relieved, not disappointed, when the legitimacy of election outcomes is strengthened, however much we dislike him.” Hamid wrote.
“Conspiracy with Russia wasn’t the only thing that commentators – both liberals and Never Trump conservatives – got wrong, though,” reviewing things that had been written about him by name writers. “How could so many get it wrong?”
And need I remind them that they haven’t admitted the errors in their ways?
FEWER REGULATIONS UNDER TRUMP – For the third year in a row, the Trump administration has broken the record for issuing the fewest regulations and rules, a radical departure from the eight years of President Obama.
The 2,964 new rules are the lowest recorded since 1975 when the government began counting them, according to Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner.
RESULTS AND PROMISES KEPT have been recorded by the Trump reelection campaign and 319 “results’ are listed under 15 separate categories. The truly impressive list is too long to publish here, but it can be found on the Internet.
May God continue to bless the United States of America.
