We need a military coup against Trump

[Don Giovanni]

He ordered the bombing of Iraq's airport, killing Iran's commander-in-chief. It's comical that the people attacking the US embassy in Iraq are terrorists. A terrorist would bomb an airport, like Trump did.

In all likelihood, Iran is going to go war with the US now and this will likely set off a world war. The only way I can see this being avoided now is probably through his forceful removal from office via a military coup and we'll need a general in charge of the country until the next election.

Edit: It was actually an attack against his envoy as they left the airport, not the airport itself.

[Don Giovanni]

Soleimani led Iranian-backed groups in Syria to defeat ISIS. Pay no attention to talk of him being the equivalent to the ISIS leader or him being a terrorist. It's shameless propaganda. The US, beginning under Obama, effectively armed and backed jihadists, who would go on to fight for ISIS, like they did the Taliban in the Soviet-Afghan war of the early 80s. Trump attacked those very forces that fought ISIS time and again.

[Reaper]

Hopefully Iran is all talk like Greece and nothing happens.

[Don Giovanni]

Tucker Carlson:

[LoneHorseman]

Ah Tucker, first saw him 25 years or so ago, god I'm dating myself, on crossfire at cnn, with the original American nationalist in Pat Buchanan, someone I wished Trump would emulate, but alas, Trump has gotten swayed to the Washington foreign establishment and neocon leeches, like his son in law. Too bad Trump, who watches Fox regularly, hasn't heeded Tucker Carlson's sage advice over the last couple of years and withdrawn from the region. You don't need a coup against Trump because Iran is slowly sucking him into a regional conflict with them and in turn Trump is sealing his OWN REELECTION fate with this conflict in 10 months. Exactly what Iran wants, a Democrat in power and crippling sanctions off their backs. They couldn't of scripted it any better, even though they lost one of their top strategic generals in the process.

[Don Giovanni]

Everything Tucker said was correct. Iran isn't a threat to the US. I think any sensible person knows that Iran will retaliate and suck the US into a war. And from there who knows how much it will escalate.

[Reaper]

It is a good distraction for the Ottomans to continue re-conquering the med basin while everyone is distracted with Trump vs Iran. However, deep down, the media were never interested in Turkey invading other nations anyways.. Idlib refugees was the media angle in that region. Libya barely gets a mention.

As for the Iranian thing, there must be at least 1 million Iranians with US citizenship by now. Trump should try to form a special military unit consisting of Iranian volunteers. Seems a wasted resource for the US..

[Don Giovanni]

The president has a simple choice in front of him. Once Iraq votes the US out, which surely they will now do, Trump should take it and leave Iraq. If he's sincere about preventing war, he'll do exactly that. He made his point on Soleimani to the Iranians, that he can take them out if he so chooses, but at this point the best thing to do is for the US to pull out and avoid risking more lives in needless conflict.

Israel can fend for herself. If Iran wants to fight them in a suicidal war, that's their business. As for Israel, they want their cake and to eat it too. They should forget their greater Israel project and learn to operate within international law again. The last thing they want, if there are at all any sensible leaders still in the country, is a war with Iran too.

Reaper

That's my concern too, that Turkey will take advantage of the situation. I don't think the US and Israel will want to alienate Turkey if faced with the prospect of a war with Iran. I don't expect Netanyahu to see through the pipeline. They'll give Turkey a pass. Realistically, we'll have to start taking measures of our own. Our leadership must come to terms with that. We simply can't wait on the EU, NATO and any other so-called allies to come to our aid or help resolve us this issue.

That also really brings things into proper perspective. These alliances mean nothing to our national security. If anything, they have long jeopardized it. There's no need for us to treat Russia as a foe, especially when they can help curtail Turkey's silly ambitions.

[Don Giovanni]

An invasion of Iran would be an operation on the same scale as that undertaken against Germany in WWII, according to a retired British Admiral:

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/lat...lions-21211138

Putting Trump's assassination of Soleimani and company into better perspective:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-kil...50002273.html?

“The Americans are now totally unpredictable,” Gerard Araud, a former French ambassador to the U.S. and the United Nations, said in an interview. “There was no response to Iranian attacks against oil tankers, a U.S. drone and Saudi oil fields, but out of the blue comes this surprising hit on Soleimani. We are depending on the unpredictable reaction of one man.”

(emphasis mine)

If he puts the US into a position where war with Iran becomes unavoidable, Trump needs to be removed from office. Nor should he be permitted to start a pre-emptive war with Iran. He would need congressional approval first. This would be more than a war with Iran; it would be the start of a world war.

The drone strike shatters an assumption -- often repeated by Western officials in anonymous briefings -- that Trump would do his utmost to avoid war during an election year. Yet the move may only reinforce the determination of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un to build a stronger nuclear deterrent, as the Iraq strike underscores that a nuclear arsenal -- which Kim’s regime possesses and Iran is capable of developing -- is the surest way to ensure a regime’s survival.

world leaders started to think they knew how to read the former New York real estate developer.

That’s gone now, probably permanently.

I would argue he illegimitized himself. What Trump did was an act of war. The president should simply stick to what he campaigned on and leave the Israelis and Saudis to sort their issues out with Iran on their own.

There is an expectation that Iran will respond with either cyber attacks or attacks on US military personnel in the region. This will likely occur at a time before the 2020 election day and it will be timed in such a manner to hurt Trump politically. There's good reason to believe President Trump will treat the loss of any US life at the hands of Iran as a basis to carry out similar acts as he did with this assassination, so things could escalate a lot. Trump needs to do what he campaigned on and force Iran into a position that would not draw the US into a war.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/03/w...n-nuclear.html

[Don Giovanni]

The New York Times writes that the Pentagon was taken aback my Trump's decision to hit Soleimani.

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/na...zfm-story.html

In the chaotic days leading to the death of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s most powerful commander, top American military officials put the option of killing him — which they viewed as the most extreme response to recent Iranian-led violence in Iraq — on the menu they presented to President Donald Trump.

They didn’t think he would take it. In the wars waged since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Pentagon officials have often offered improbable options to presidents to make other possibilities appear more palatable.

After initially rejecting the Soleimani option on Dec. 28 and authorizing airstrikes on an Iranian-backed Shiite militia group instead, a few days later Trump watched, fuming, as television reports showed Iranian-backed attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, according to Defense Department and administration officials.

By late Thursday, the president had gone for the extreme option. Top Pentagon officials were stunned.

Iraq has voted the US and all other foreign militaries out.

http://news.trust.org/item/20200105141444-bjkfk

A resolution passed by a special session of parliament said the government should cancel its request for assistance from a U.S.-led coalition.

Parliament resolutions, unlike laws, are non-binding to the government. But this one is likely to be heeded: Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi had earlier called on parliament to end foreign troop presence as soon as possible.

"Despite the internal and external difficulties that we might face, it remains best for Iraq on principle and practically," Abdul Mahdi said.

The special session was called after a U.S. drone strike on Friday on a convoy at Baghdad airport that killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

Since the killings, rival Shi'ite political leaders have called for U.S. troops to be expelled from Iraq in an unusual show of unity among factions that have squabbled for months.

Trump has threatened to hit 52 Iranians site if they retaliate by killing Americans. Iran threatens 35. All targets are in the vicinity of Iran and her neighbors.

General Gholamali Abuhamzeh warned of a possible attack on “vital American targets” located in the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation of Soleimani’s death.

“Vital American targets in the region have been identified by Iran since long time ago ... some 35 US targets in the region, as well as Tel Aviv, are within our reach," he said.

Should Iran kill any Americans, Trump's red line, and then in response Trump makes good on his renewed threats, then we will be in the throes of not only a war with Iran, but a world war. The Russians intervened in Syria, they'll intervene again in Iran.

I don't expect it to get that far. If Trump's a fool, the US military's top brass, the Joint Chiefs, will need to disobey his orders and remove him office via a coup. A general will have to assume the job until the new election can be held.

If Trump is truly a man of his word and if he has any sense, he'll pull the US troops out, as now passed in resolution by a democratic process in Iraq, and would make every effort to pull out Americans who may be targeted by Iran, if they so choose to make good on their threats. Iran is the problem of Saudi Arabia and Israel, not the US. They need to sort themselves out. Trump needs to get the US out now. He made his point about decapitating Iran, it's time to dial everything down and end the Middle East misadventure of these past 20 years.

[Don Giovanni]

As the NYT reported, the Pentagon and DOD leaked that they didn't favor the strike that killed Soleimani, despite the neocon apparatchiks that are embedded among them committed to regime change in Iran.

Trump meanwhile is claiming that the US won't leave Iraq:

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, the U.S. president said: "If they do ask us to leave, if we don't do it in a very friendly basis, we will charge them sanctions like they've never seen before ever. It'll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame."

"We have a very extraordinarily expensive air base that's there. It cost billions of dollars to build. Long before my time. We're not leaving unless they pay us back for it," Trump said.

Back in October he was rallying supporters to bring the troops home. He left Syrian Kurdish allies high and dry, despite their role in locating Baghadi, and gave his buddy Erdogan carte blanche to attack them. It's likely that Turkey played a role in protecting Baghadi given where he was hiding out.

I think Trump will soon end his presidency in complete disgrace. Nixon had the brains to resign and withdraw from Vietnam, although if not for the Watergate scandal it may not have been that way. Trump will probably be removed forcefully from office by his own military should things escalate to the point of war with Iran and the president himself seems quite intent on ensuring that outcome.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei was emotional at Soleimani's funeral and it's clear he takes his death very personally.

https://apnews.com/14792cc1d7f73ffec8f8c425b73b44fb

Soleimani has received what no man before him has in modern Iran. His funeral processions have been spread over several days and cities, marking the first time Iran has ever honored a single man with a multi-city ceremony. Not even Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who founded the Islamic Republic, received such a processional with his death in 1989.

Time will tell how the Iranians will respond, but they have already restarted their nuclear program.

[Don Giovanni]

If you have 20 or so minutes to spare, this is worth listening to:

[Don Giovanni]

A military observer of some repute, ret. Col. Pat Lang, had this to say on Trump's decision to kill Soleimani:

https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_...ast-irony.html

I had hoped that Trump's decision to kill an Iranian general engaged in a diplomatic mission (among other things) while the man was on the soil of a supposed ally of the US was something Trump pulled out of his fundament either inspired by war movies or on the recommendation of "our greatest ally" [Israel] but I am informed that in fact some idiot in the DoD included this option in the list of possibilities that was briefed to the CinC in Florida.

I would hold General Milley (CJCS) personally responsible for not striking this option from the list before it reached the CinC.

He linked to this WaPo article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...fb_story.html?

I really want to stress this point that President Trump himself, egged on by neocons, made this decision. I do not exaggerate when I say this was not a decision taken with enthusiasm by much more seasoned and reasoned members of the military. It's also obvious that Gen. Milley will need to be very careful and will need to keep this president more in line from doing anything this dangerous again.

[Don Giovanni]

Trump came to Jesus: U.S.-led coalition says it will withdraw from Iraq -letter

http://news.trust.org/item/20200106193750-gbx3f

"Sir, in deference to the sovereignty of the Republic of Iraq, and as requested by the Iraqi Parliament and the Prime Minister, CJTF-OIR will be repositioning forces over the course of the coming days and weeks to prepare for onward movement," read a letter from United States Marine Corps Brigadier General William H. Seely III, the commanding general of Task Force Iraq.

[Don Giovanni]

Never mind... Trump can't get a clue!

Chaos over U.S. troops in Iraq as Pentagon insists they WON'T withdraw despite general leading anti-ISIS coalition saying they'll move 'out of Iraq' in draft letter released by mistake amid anger over attack that killed Qassem Soleimani

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ops-leave.html

Pat Buchanan: If Baghdad Wants Us Out, Let’s Go!

https://buchanan.org/blog/if-baghdad...lets-go-137979