The Sumg and Confident Club. Or is it just the blind leading the blind? America’s Treacherous Mobster Assassin
“By his treachery he will succeed through deceit. He will have an arrogant attitude, and he will destroy many who are unaware of his schemes.”
-(Dan 8:25 New English Translation)
by Don Clasen
Jan. 19, 2020
What we have been told about the circumstances surrounding Donald Trump’s assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani has been the usual collection of bald-faced lies, distorted half-truths and Exceptional Nation conceits that have typified our invasion of the Middle East since 9-11. Yet in this reckless step of escalation there is a context that is even more shocking and damning than what little the US media has covered. It paints the picture of a President who is willing to shake down yet another impoverished and vulnerable nation trying to deal with corruption, and do it this time at a level of treachery and deliberate war-provocation that is breathtaking.
Not that he was alone in pulling this trigger. The two Evangelical Mikes, Pence and Pompeo, along with Defense Secretary Mark Esper have also been promoting war with Iran to Trump as well. His former National Security Advisor John Bolton first suggested whacking Soleimani last June as a response to the Iranians shooting down one of our drones spying over their airspace.[1] This I suppose is a Bolton-brain example of what “proportionality” means—a downed machine versus assassinating a head or near head of another sovereign country. Not to mention that spying over the air space of a sovereign nation is an act of aggression in the first place according to the international laws America once upon a time helped spearhead.
US MQ-9 “Reaper” Drone with “Hellfire” missiles courtesy of “Christian” America
And Of Course, The Israelis
Last but actually first is the voice of the biggest puppet master of them all in Trump’s ear, Israel:
“…an Iran-focussed [mutual defense] treaty [with the US no less] was to be a key issue on the agenda of hurriedly-arranged talks with Secretary Pompeo in Lisbon this week [Dec. 4, 2019] – a ‘summit’ that followed in the wake of a notable flock of very high-level, US Defence officials visiting Israel in recent days. In Lisbon, Netanyahu said that his talks with Pompeo had focused on: 1. Iran; 2. Iran, and number 3: Iran.”[2]
On top of all that, David Wurmser one of those hardcore Jewish neo-con (read, “Israeli asset”) planners of the original Bush-Cheney “weapons of mass destruction” fraud has apparently also come on board the Trump train as an unofficial advisor. In email correspondences with his friend John Bolton last spring, Wurmser urged the assassination of Soleimani under the logic[3] that it would, “rattle the delicate internal balance of forces and the control over them upon which the [Iranian] regime depends for stability and survival.”
Yes, there’s your Israeli sensibilities in a nutshell. Control over a “delicate internal balance of forces” is that upon which all nations depend “for stability and survival.” How to play the victim (while being the hidden aggressor) and attack that stability through duped proxies like the United States is the Zionists’ special skill set. When you hear Donald Trump spout off his illogical inverted view of reality, he is merely following the Israeli “way of the aggressor” taught to him by Roy Cohn, a way (according to them) that no other nation has a right to exercise.
He Sure Loves Phone Calls
The key to understanding what happened in this incident beyond the bare-bones reporting of the Western press is in the speech Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi gave to Parliament two days after Soleimani’s death. It was a speech “widely covered and quoted in the U.S. media but its most explosive revelations have been omitted or buried.”[4]
Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi
In it, Abdul-Mahdi revealed a series of phone calls he received from President Trump over a period of several months reminiscent of the tactics Trump had just finished using on another would-be reformer, Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. Through them Trump used a string of threats including one to kill Abdul-Mahdi himself and the Iraqi Defense Minister if they wouldn’t give in to his demands! In one last call he thanked him for helping disperse the crowd at the embassy then asked him to recruit Soleimani to mediate in conflicts Trump himself was orchestrating. This he did to lure Soleimani into a kill zone in Abdul-Mahdi’s own territory, a violation of the sovereignty of two nations at once.
While Western media noted that following Abdul-Mahdi’s talk, the Iraqi Parliament passed a vote demanding that all US troops leave Iraq, none have seemed interested in digging into what exactly the Prime Minister told them that would move them to do such a drastic thing. I would assume this is because, despite how much the mainstream media hates Trump and rightfully so, they are owned by the Zionist money pyramid so committed to keeping the public in the dark as to Israel’s Machiavellian Yinon plan to turn all her neighbors into failed states.
Nice Oil You Have There
One reporter that did dig deeper was Italian journalist Federico Pieraccini.[5] In his article “The Deeper Story Behind The Assassination of Soleimani,” he explained that, “Abdul-Mehdi spoke angrily about how the Americans had ruined the country and now refused to complete infrastructure and electricity grid projects unless they were promised 50% of oil revenues, which Abdul-Mehdi refused.”[6]
What he said about the Americans “ruining the country” is putting it mildly. Whenever the United States “liberates” and occupies a nation, ruin, misery and corruption follow like night follows day. For vivid examples of how this works, here’s two great essays, one by comedian Lee Camp on what we did to Afghanistan, and another by eminent scholar Noam Chomsky about our demonization of Iran.
I likewise assume the specific “American” refusing to complete infrastructure projects here is a reference to Trump himself who threatened to do so unless Abdul-Mahdi hand over no less than 50% of Iraq’s oil revenues! F. William Engdahl gives us a little more context for this:
In September, 2019 Washington demanded that Iraq pay for completion of key infrastructure projects destroyed by the ISIS war– a war where Washington as well as Ankara, Israel and Saudi Arabia played the key hidden role—by giving the US government 50% of Iraqi oil revenues, an outrageous demand to put it politely.
Yes, and on many levels too, not the least of which is that ISIS is America’s secret proxy army. This is vintage Trump in at least three ways. One, he’s never shown any shame over the immorality of stealing the resources of weaker nations. Somehow he thinks that if you’re unapologetic about your criminality that somehow makes it morally acceptable.
Two, reneging on a contract to re-negotiate the terms is the way he’s always done business. It’s something he learned from the Italian mafia which controlled half the construction unions of New York in the 1970s. If you refused to meet their demands, your project would languish half-finished until you “coughed it up.”
Three, I would like to know where these oil revenues would be going—into the US Treasury or Donald Trump’s pocket? Recently he bragged about renting out US troops to the Saudis for a billion dollars that “went in the bank.” Which bank and what account, I have no idea.[7]
Big Mistake
Abdul-Mahdi goes on: “This is why I visited China and signed an important agreement with them to undertake the construction instead.”
When the United States attacks a nation in the name of “liberating” it, obliterating its infrastructure many times over like we did with Iraq, then offers to rebuild it with self-serving contracts to insider US corporations paid for by the US taxpayer, who isn’t left outraged except the corrupt parties themselves? When the US acts like a mafia state, squeezing weaker nations for every dollar we can get out of them by threatening to leave our projects unfinished, is it surprising to find those nations going elsewhere to shop?
In this case it’s right into the arms of China with whom Trump has been waging a trade war no less.[8] Abdul-Mahdi in fact led a 55-member delegation to Beijing in mid-September, “heralding a quantum leap in bi-lateral relations.” He came back with eight “Memorandums of Understanding” (tentative contracts), the biggest of which was the oil deal wherein China would get 20% of Iraq’s oil production to pay for the infrastructure projects.
Big mistake. China’s plan to integrate the entire Asian landmass through the New Silk Road trade network from London to Beijing also threatens the Israeli plan to keep the region roiling in turmoil while they pursue their chosen people fantasy about “inheriting the earth.”[9] Stoking up a war between the “stupid Americans” and the Iranians, played out with Iraq as the staging ground is a big part of this and exactly the kind of situation the Iraqis are trying to avoid.
Machiavellian America
Abdul-Mahdi: “Upon my return [Sep. 24], Trump called me to ask me to reject this agreement. When I refused, he threatened to unleash huge demonstrations against me that would end my premiership.”
Trump’s threat reflects the Talmudic mentality of entitlement so common now in the US/Israeli empire. “You must do business with us or else. You have no right to boycott us.” This is what you see and hear with Israel’s anti-BDS efforts, and Trump shares these mafia-like attitudes.
Abdul-Mahdi: “Huge demonstrations against me duly materialized…”
One, Iraq unsurprisingly is not hard to stir up. Thanks to the 2003 invasion life has been an unending nightmare for them and a $2.2 trillion black hole for the US according to a Brown University study.[10] Today Iraq ranks 117 out of 147 nations in the UN’s World Happiness Report.[11] Corruption is rampant since the US answer to all problems is to throw taxpayer money around like chickenfeed, a racket that benefits both locals as well as Americans on the scene. Iraq is ranked 161 out of 168 countries on the Transparency International Corruption Index.[12] When Abdul-Mahdi took over as a reform-minded candidate (just like Zelensky in Ukraine) there was a backlog of 13,000 un-investigated cases of corruption.
Two, right on cue protests began breaking out all over the country starting October 1 and continuing on through the end of the year.[13] In fact, such protests have been plaguing not just Iraq but Lebanon, Syria and Iran recently, all part of the seven-nation axis Israel is trying to destroy. This after the Russians obliterated ISIS in 2015 in Syria and the Iranians decimated them in Iraq by 2017. It seems that in spite of all the suffering Israel and the US have brought to the region only to see humiliating defeat, they simply won’t give up and are undertaking a renewed effort to stir it up all over again now that they have such a cooperative tool back in the White House.
This is how we do it:
“In short, we are dealing with New Generation warfare: maximum economic pressure (and siege) [i.e., sanctions], to trigger popular protest, and then to leverage these genuine economic grievances suffered by the ordinary populace, through inserting small, trained elements to seed ‘messages’ [attacks] – and to resort to calibrated violence against symbols of the state (in order to seize media attention) – should popular protests flag, and require reviving.”[14]
This “New Generation Warfare” has been quite useful for punishing the Syrian people for successfully defending themselves from our ISIS/Al Queda Sunni savages. This is our idea of “spreading democracy” while pretending it isn’t breaking every principle of the Geneva Accords.
In Iraq, the United States has about 5,000 troops, almost two-thirds of which are hidden somewhere in the county, so hostile is the local population to our presence. There are also 15,000 contractors, many of them mercenaries. About three or four thousand are CIA assets. These are the people who stir things up as agent provocateurs and why Trump could so confidently promise Abdul-Mahdi “trouble” if he didn’t knuckle under, the same kind of menacing language he leveled against Ambassador Yovanovich in Ukraine.
Three, two months of constant protests around the country over unemployment, corruption and a lack of water and electricity (the very projects Trump was holding up) took their toll. Angry protestors were blaming Mahdi for everything and demanding he resign, which he did in late November. (He’s been in a “caretaker” role since until his replacement is agreed upon). Trump apparently though intended more.
Murdering Protesters
Mahdi: “…and Trump called again to threaten that if I did not comply with his demands, then he would have Marine snipers on tall buildings target protesters and security personnel alike in order to pressure me. I refused again and handed in my resignation. To this day the Americans insist on us rescinding our deal with the Chinese.”
First, over the course of those three months, over 300 people had indeed been shot dead around the country in connection with various protests. Veterans Today claims Navy SEAL teams were involved as well as Marines, similar to the mysterious snipers involved in the 2014 Maidan revolution in Ukraine.[15]
These protests seemed to peak with one outside the US Embassy in Baghdad on December 31, 2019. This mob was led by a militia incensed over a US air strike on five Kataeb Hezbollah bases just two days earlier, leaving 25 dead and 75 wounded.
Kataeb Hezbollah is an official Iraqi government militia (like our National Guard) that has worked with Soleimani and the Iranians to track down and destroy (Western-backed) ISIS terrorists in Iraq. These strikes look like part of this deliberate orchestration by Trump. His excuse was a minor attack on an Iraqi government base the week before that killed just one American contractor, all part of the growing turmoil since October 1.
US Defense Secretary Mike Esper called up Abdul-Mahdi to warn him about the coming air strikes. Abdul-Mahdi in return warned him that such overkill would “be a very dangerous act that could lead to an escalation.” Which of course it did, which was the intent.
Second, what’s important to understand in this incident is that this US Embassy, the biggest one in the world, is located within the Green Zone, one of the most secure compounds in the world. Protestors cannot just show up and gather around it; they have to pass through multiple checkpoints to get there. The fact that they got through at all suggests that stand down orders were sent to allow this to happen.
“We differentiate between these militia groups and the legitimate protesters who have been in the streets for the last couple months demanding a better government and a better future for themselves. These people came right on in. They are very clearly identified,” a U.S. official told Fox News.”[16]
“It was the first time in years protesters have been able to reach the US embassy, which is sheltered behind a series of checkpoints in the high-security Green Zone. A stream of men in military fatigues, as well as some women, marched through those checkpoints to the embassy’s walls with no apparent reaction from Iraqi security forces.”[17]
These protesters were led by an angry mob of Kataib Hezbollah supporters incensed over the American bombing of five of their “bases” (such as they are) two days before, resulting in 25 dead and 75 wounded. Kataib Hezbollah (“the Brigades of God’) is an Iraqi self-defense militia founded just prior to the 2003 invasion. They are considered national heroes for resisting foreign occupiers (just like Americans would) and helped rid the nation of real ISIS terrorists. They have been designated a terrorist group by three whole nations—the United States, the UAE and Japan. Being “Iran-backed” is with the permission of the Iraqi government. The idea that these of all people would be allowed deep inside the Green Zone without being part of Trump’s intentional theatrics is just ludicrous.
Threatening Top Officials
Abdul-Mahdi: “After this, when our Minister of Defense publicly stated that a third party was targeting both protestors and security personnel alike (just as Trump had threatened he would do), I received a new call from Trump threatening to kill both me and the Minister of Defense if we kept on talking about this ‘third party’.”
In other words, if Abdul-Mahdi and the Defense Minister kept talking about Trump’s American assassins, the US President would kill them too! Do I even need to comment on this?
Abdul-Mahdi: “I was supposed to meet him [Soleimani] later in the morning when he was killed. He came to deliver a message from Iran in response to the message we had delivered to the Iranians from the Saudis. The Kingdom’s statement regarding the events in Iraq stresses the Kingdom’s view of the importance of de-escalation to save the countries of the region and their people from the risks of any escalation. The kingdom of Saudi Arabia was not consulted regarding the U.S. strike. In light of the rapid developments, the Kingdom stresses the importance of exercising restraint to guard against all acts that may lead to escalation, with severe consequences.”
Aggravated Treachery
This is where the treachery really starts to peak. Trump’s unpredictability is becoming so erratic and capricious that apparently now even the Saudis feel we’re undependable. This along with the September attacks on their oil facilities moved them to reach out to the Iranians for a de-escalation of hostilities. The Iraqis were acting as mediators between the two. It is certain the omniscient Americans and Israelis were aware of this threat of “peace breaking out,” subverting the Zionist plan to keep the region in turmoil.
Soleimani, widely-respected in the region for among other things his diplomatic and mediation skills, was playing the role of envoy, hand-delivering his government’s response to the Saudis overtures at the time he was killed. But the worst part of it was how he was set up.
After Iraqi security forces turned back the angry mob of Dec. 31, Trump again called Abdul-Mahdi thanking him for his help. From Time magazine:
“Mahdi said President Donald Trump called him and asked him to mediate with Iran even as the American president was secretly ordering Soleimani’s killing. Mahdi also said he was set to meet Soleimani [anyway], who was carrying a response to an initiative from Saudi Arabia intended to deescalate tensions.”[18]
In other words, after thanking him for helping quell an attack on our own embassy, he encouraged him to reach out to Soleimani to ask him to use his influence to tamp down the passions. This he did knowing that he himself was the author of the embassy attack and that he was luring Soleimani out of Iran into the kill zone.
Soleimani flew to Baghdad on a commercial airliner. American intel knew all about it but, being the second highest official in a major nation like Iran, he probably didn’t believe the Americans would be so rash as to assassinate him right out in the open, something normally reserved for a covert CIA hit such as was attempted on Castro so many times. American Presidents are normally afforded plausible deniability this way. But not Trump. Like I said, he loves to do his crimes brashly and out in the open.
The Excuses Begin
“Until we receive further elaboration, the Prime Minister’s revelation to Parliament leaves in question whether the Trump White House actually helped schedule the meeting between Soleimani and Abdul-Mahdi under a pretense of peace talks and then executed Soleimani when he arrived for it — a mafia-style setup and assassination.”[19]
The drone strike against Soleimani also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the founder of Kataib Hezbollah and a Deputy Commander of the national Popular Mobilization Forces and ten other high military officials from both governments. The PMF is part of the Iraqi government and Muhandis a member of Parliament.
These two men were the strategists behind defeating the Western-backed Islamic State in Iraq by organizing and training local communities to defend themselves. The United States merely played at fighting ISIL, a secret Western asset. It was the Russians, Iranians, Syrians and Iraqis that decimated that plague. Now that Soleimani is gone there is no doubt ISIS has a new lease on life again.
As soon as Washington got over the shock of what Trump did, his minions and the press spared no amount of lurid rhetoric in the usual Washington demonization rituals. Trump first claimed they had intel that he was behind an imminent attack on a US embassy, then he upped it to four. Defense Secretary Mark Esper brought it back down to one, admitting he had not seen any such intel while insulting members of Congress over it.
They called Soleimani “a terrorist” who had “the blood of hundreds of Americans on his hands,” “up to five hundred,” etc., yet more lies. The vast majority of those American casualties took place during the years right after the 2003 invasion when local resistance groups were doing roadside bombings. The Iranians were not even involved in Iraq at that point. American generals with the blood of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis on their hands is never discussed. The difference is that they got that blood in adventurism half-way around the world while this general was defending his own country and region.
Who Was Qasem Soleimani?
To call the man a terrorist and a butcher, an evildoer, etc. is typical US/Israeli slander and contempt for the 9th Commandment. By our own definition, a terrorist is a “non-state actor” who utilizes violence to strike fear into the heart of a population. Soleimani was a high government official of Iran, a 90-million-citizen nation recognized by the UN. These are the traditional Persian people, in existence for thousands of years and who saved the Jews from extinction twice in their history. He was considered in fact, number two in his government and the Ayatollah Khamenei’s “right hand man.”[20]
Recently Trump was recorded telling his rich donors he killed Soleimani because “he was saying bad things” about the US. “How much of this shit do we have to listen to? How much are we going to listen to?”[21] Is that really all he has?
No, Soleimani was not hated and feared by the West because he was vicious but because he was such a competent military leader. Among his many skills was organizing and training local home defense militias in Iraq and Syria to protect communities from the merry head-choppers and organ-eaters of ISIS. He even helped Eastern Orthodox Christian communities in Iraq and Syria in this as best he could, seeing as their tradition is pacifist. ISIS celebrated his death as “an act of God”[22] and we can expect an upsurge from them again now.
Wisdom From Our State Department
But even more has come out since then. Pompeo in a Jan. 13 speech at Stanford University announced that the US was revamping its doctrine of deterrence by—typical of the Trumpian era—inverting reality with Orwellian language. The traditional doctrine of deterrence is a defensive concept, the idea that through military strength you deter any would-be aggressor from attacking you. The new improved Mike Pompeo “Christian” sense of deterrence is a carte blanche to be the aggressor. Here’s the statement either he or his neo-con (Zionist) dominated State Department dictated in response to criticism of the hit on Soleimani:
“America is a force for good in the Middle East. Our military presence in Iraq is to continue the fight against ISIS and as the Secretary has said, we are committed to protecting Americans, Iraqis, and our coalition partners….At this time, any delegation sent to Iraq would be dedicated to discussing how to best recommit to our strategic partnership—not to discuss troop withdrawal, but our right, appropriate force posture in the Middle East. …. There does, however, need to be a conversation between the U.S. and Iraqi governments not just regarding security, but about our financial, economic, and diplomatic partnership. We want to be a friend and partner to a sovereign, prosperous, and stable Iraq.”
They apparently forgot to add to that last sentence, “Whether you like it or not.”
China and the American Great Game
If the assassination of the Iranian general had been planned since last spring, the question is, Why now? The answer may lie in those construction deals Iraq signed with China, the centerpiece being the one giving China 20% of Iraq’s annual oil production. Unsurprisingly again, after the attack the Iraqis quietly decided to triple the amount of oil China agreed to in September’s deal! This took place one day after the United States threatened to seize Iraq’s national bank account in New York holding $35 billion of oil revenue.[23]
How’s that for Divine irony and justice? Trump tried to shake Iraq down for 50% of the profits, he ends up with none and the Chinese with 60%. This is the effect of Mafioso politics, because the answer to everything for this guy is this:
In fact, the fate of America in the Middle East because of this rash act, fully backed up by the “West Point Mafia Class of 1986” (Pompeo, Esper, Urban and three other high Trump officials),[24] is to be pushed out of regional influence altogether and to be replaced by China. And that means being replaced by the Chinese military too since they are highly motivated to protect their expensive investments in Iraq.
In the face of this the only response left to the wounded pride of the Exceptional, Indispensable Nation is to blast its way back into the Middle East. This too is prophesied of the Antichrist, that he will cause “astounding devastation” (Dan 8:24 NIV). I assume this means him doing what he’s always wanted to do—have a nuclear World War III. This will be the start of the short 3 ½ year Great Tribulation (Rev 6), book-ended by a grand showdown called Armageddon at the time of the Second Coming (Rev 19).
America Is Not Prepared For War!
After Trump’s reckless gambit the world held its breath to see what the Iranian response would be. Israel has been slandering them for decades, caricaturing them as irrational animals who cannot control their emotions, a conceit taken right out of their Talmudic fantasies about Gentiles in general. When the Iranians followed up with a limited strike on American bases, preceded by an alert conveyed through the Iraqis to give Americans a chance to take cover in their hardened bunkers, and a declaration they didn’t want any further escalation, they proved the Israeli stereotype to be false.
What may have led to a sudden brake being applied to the orchestration of war[25] however was the shock of the Americans. Apparently they had no idea that the Iranians had weaponry of such pinpoint accuracy, verified by satellite photos in spite of American denials.[26] At the same time US readiness is way over-hyped after years of privatization of the military, shoddy engineering and testing, personnel cutbacks and squeezing out every penny of profit possible.[27]
The dirty little secret about the US intervention in the Middle East is that it was motivated by two main aims—the theft of their oil and the security and expansive ambitions of Israel.[28] When they didn’t welcome us as liberators as the neo-cons promised but rather fought back, US Marines ended up being bagmen, carrying briefcases of US dollars to warlords to bribe them to stop planting IEDs blowing up American soldiers. Later on ISIS was added as the new bugie-man/proxy army to do our dirty work.[29]
To these two reasons can be added a third, that forcing the world to trade for oil in US dollars is what props up the madness of America’s reckless national debt. Indeed, this may well have sealed Saddam Hussein’s fate two decades ago, his intent to move the world off the petro-dollar. By forcing nations to accept our worthless dollars, we finance our national debt. If they break that monopoly the United States would collapse economically overnight. Hence the only response we have is raw, naked power—”might makes right.”
So Here We Go Again
What the Asian land mass in particular has to choose between in the coming year is an Eastern alliance anchored in China’s win-win trade offerings vs. Western treachery, gunboat diplomacy, Exceptional Nation-ism, and delusional retreat into fantasy. If we actually ever got into a war, we can count on our government to never tell us the truth of the casualties suffered. But don’t be surprised to find ourselves in the middle of the Great Tribulation soon. My best guess is the spring of 2021 after Trump “wins” re-election.[30]
All this escalation of turmoil in the Middle East began when Trump, obsessed with undoing everything Obama ever accomplished, unilaterally pulled the US out of the multi-lateral, painstakingly-crafted nuclear agreement Obama forged with Iran and slapped more economic sanctions on them. The deal was designed to quell Netanyahu’s endless gaslighting over an Iranian nuclear program and to empower the more modern, secular Iranians, the very objective we keep claiming we want to effect. Their own rural-based “religious right” warned that the Great Satan couldn’t be trusted, and apparently Trump’s actions vindicated their cynicism.
It was Benjamin Netanyahu who later bragged it was he who convinced Trump to pull out of it. Netanyahu has hypocritically castigated Iran for a program they might have pursued for four years but gave up by the turn of the 21st century. Israel it is well known however, has between 200 to 400 nuclear weapons stolen from the United States. And while Iran is a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Israel refuses to do so.
In the run up to the Iraq invasion of 2003, UN arms inspector Scott Ritter was savagely attacked by the Republican/Israeli propaganda mill for opposing Bush and Cheney’s lies. He stated that what nuclear ambitions Saddam Hussein had had, Ritter’s American team had effectively demolished in 1998, yet no one believed him until after we found…nothing.
Yet in spite of this, Benjamin Netanyahu went before Congress in 2002 to give his usual drama queen performance. You can expect him to do it again. Are men like him and Trump just frustrated actors and wannabe celebrities at heart who don’t want to “pay the price” for real fame? The two of them became literal salesmen instead. You want to keep listening to con men like them?
Notes:
[1] “Article 1 of the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation, to which the United States and Iran are both parties, provides that ‘every State has complete and exclusive jurisdiction over the airspace above its territory’ and that no state has a right to fly unmanned vehicles over another’s territory without permission…In 2014, during the Gaza war, Israel used a Patriot missile to destroy an unmanned Hamas aircraft over the Israeli city of Ashdod.” “Iran Shoots Down a U.S. Drone: Domestic and International Legal Implications,” https://www.lawfareblog.com/iran-shoots-down-us-drone-domestic-and-international-legal-implications
[2] “Preparing the Stage: A Flawed Prospectus for War, This Time With Iran,” by Alastair Crooke, https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/12/09/preparing-stage-flawed-prospectus-for-war-time-with-iran/
[3] “This theory, so popular among neoconservatives, has always been bizarre: Nations generally become more right-wing when under attack. For instance, after the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, Americans did not demand that Bush be impeached and Dennis Kucinich move into the Oval Office. We should definitely consider the possibility that the neocons don’t know what they’re talking about.”—“Key Architect of 2003 Iraq War Is Now a Key Architect of Trump Iran Policy,” https://theintercept.com/2020/01/16/david-wurmser-iran-suleimani-iraq-war/
[4] https://www.anti-empire.com/iraqi-pm-trump-asked-me-to-mediate-with-iran-then-assassinated-my-guest/
[5] Pieracinni based his article on an English translation of speech notes Mahdi himself later tweeted. Since then the notes of other PMs present have been posted. (Link found in “How a Hidden Parliamentary Session Revealed Trump’s True Motives in Iraq”)
[6] https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/01/08/the-deeper-story-behind-the-assassination-of-soleimani/
[7] “We have a very good relationship with Saudi Arabia—I said, listen, you’re a very rich country. You want more troops? I’m going to send them to you, but you’ve got to pay us. They’re paying us. They’ve already deposited $1B in the bank.”
[8] This is the stable genius who bragged to the Washington Post in 1984 that “It would take an hour-and-a-half to learn everything there is to learn about missiles,” and to Bernard Loun in 1986 that he was going to get his “good friend Ronnie” (Reagan) to make him the chief US negotiator for nuclear arms. The result of course would be that “within one hour the Cold War would be over!” https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/08/trump-has-been-thinking-about-nuclear-war-for-decades-heres-why-thats-scary/
[9] https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/01/06/a-terrorist-attack-against-eurasian-integration/
[10] https://news.brown.edu/articles/2013/03/warcosts
[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report
[12] “Adil Abdul Mahdi And The Eradication Of Corruption,” http://rawabetcenter.com/en/?p=6882
[13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_protests_(2019%E2%80%93present)
[14] “Preparing the Stage: A Flawed Prospectus for War, This Time With Iran,” https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/12/09/preparing-stage-flawed-prospectus-for-war-time-with-iran/
[15] https://www.veteranstoday.com/2020/01/09/vital-the-deeper-story-behind-the-assassination-of-soleimani/
[16] “US Embassy Compound In Baghdad Targeted By Mob Protesting Airstrikes; Sit-In Planned.” https://www.foxnews.com/world/crowd-shouting-down-usa-attempts-to-storm-us-embassy-in-baghdad-report-says
[17] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/angry-iraq-protesters-attack-us-embassy-over-strikes/ar-BBYujwS
[18] “Iraqis Push for U.S. Troop Withdrawal in Symbolic Vote,” Time online. https://time.com/5759101/iraqi-parliament-vote-for-us-withdrawal/
[19] “Iraqi PM: Trump Asked Me to Mediate With Iran Then Assassinated My Guest,” by Ben Becker. https://www.anti-empire.com/iraqi-pm-trump-asked-me-to-mediate-with-iran-then-assassinated-my-guest/
[20] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qasem_Soleimani
[21] https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/478909-trump-tells-gop-donors-that-soleimani-was-saying-bad-things-before
[22] https://orinocotribune.com/isis-praises-us-assassination-of-qassem-soleimani-calls-it-act-of-god/
[23] “How a Hidden Parliamentary Session Revealed Trump’s True Motives in Iraq,” https://www.mintpressnews.com/hidden-parliamentary-session-revealed-trump-motives-iraq-china-oil/264155/
[24] https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2019/11/17/west-point-alumni-pompeo-esper-state-department-071212
[25] Evidence is starting to emerge that the Ukrainian airliner Iran accidentally shot down right after their missile attack on two US bases may have been the work of cyber warfare by the US and Israel. https://www.veteranstoday.com/2020/01/19/iran-reconsidering-downing-of-airliner-evidence-of-cyber-attack-surfaces/
[26] https://www.veteranstoday.com/2020/01/09/iran-showed-off-its-missile-accuracy-trump-got-the-message-and-backed-down/
[27] https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-says-u-s-is-ready-for-war-not-all-his-troops-are-so-sure
[28] “Many Iraqis are only realizing now what experts have been saying since 2003: that the invasion of Iraq was about oil and Israel, and not about America’s security.” “The Bush-Cheney Oil War,” by Richard Walker, https://americanfreepress.net/html/bush-cheney_oil.html
[29] https://www.activistpost.com/2015/10/the-mystery-of-isis-toyota-army-solved.html
[30] https://www.mintpressnews.com/cybereason-investors-offer-israeli-spy-classified-intelligence/264095/
