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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / War / How to Stop a War

How to Stop a War

by | 87 Comments

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Our Commander-in-Chief:

President Trump told reporters Friday that the United States had killed Qasem Soleimani, one of Iran’s top military figures, in a bid to “stop a war.” The president, speaking at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, urged Iran not to retaliate.

“We did not take action to start a war,” he said.

So it goes something like this, see if I’m paying attention:

  1. Kill top general of the opposition forces.
  2. ?????
  3. War stopped. QED

Other thoughts in the same vein:

  • “I didn’t go running in traffic to get hit by a car, but to cross the street.”
  • “I didn’t have unprotected sex to get pregnant, but to have some fun.”

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

87Comments

  3. 3.

    waspuppet

    “If you retaliate against me, you’re the one who started the conflict.”

    This is how domestic abusers talk. Crap businessmen too. And Trump is both.

  8. 8.

    painedumonde

    We had to destroy the village or something…

  10. 10.

    Felanius Kootea

    Totally makes sense.  That’s why the average person shoots his or her neighbor dead to avoid conflicts caused by noise from loud parties. There’s only a problem if the neighbor’s family decides to retaliate or call the cops and why would they make such a rash decision when the initial action was clearly well-intentioned?

  13. 13.

    Calouste

    Stopping a war apparently means bombing people every day. (The US just bombed another couple of cars.)

  14. 14.

    Butter Emails

    Ermm. Generally, killing another nation’s top general and arguably 2nd most powerful person would be  considered an act of war.

  16. 16.

    Martin

    @Bill Arnold: I mean, if you’re going to hit them with EM radiation, you don’t want something in the 1000nm range, that’s too focused. You want something in the 1cm or microwave rang… hey, wait a minute!

  17. 17.

    oldster

    So now we know what the Iranians will say after they take their next steps in retaliation:

    “We did not kill your embassy personnel to start a war, but to stop a war.”

    “We did not bomb your forward base in order to start a war, but to stop a war.”

    “We did not sink your carrier to start a war, but to stop a war.”

    And as horrible as those lies will be, they will be no less sensible than the nonsense that Trump just spewed.

  23. 23.

    Renie

    Richard Engle reporting we just did another airstrike north of Baghdad killing 6 Shiite militia leaders.  Is there no one in charge who has any critical thinking skills?

  25. 25.

    Bill Arnold

    Cheryl spotted it in the previous thread:

    In a background briefing today, a senior State Department official said about the strike on Soleimani:

    “This was an act of de-escalation.”

    “We are ready to talk with the Iranians.”

    “They are scurrying for cover.”

    “The ball is in Iran’s court.”

    Discuss.
    — Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) January 3, 2020

    “escalate to de-escalate” is about a purported secret Russian nuclear doctrine, that probably doesn’t exist:
    The Nuclear Posture Review and Russian ‘De-Escalation:’ A Dangerous Solution to a Nonexistent Problem (Olga Oliker and Andrey Baklitskiy, February 20, 2018)
    Cheryl might have better links.

    It’s hard for me to draw a even vaguely plausible analogy between political assassination and a hypothetical “escalate to de-escalate” nuclear doctrine. I.e. they are probably spinning up these justifications after the fact, to see which one gets the most traction.

  28. 28.

    J R in WV

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I don’t think even the Weekly Standard boys tried “Iran did 9/11”, did they?

    Mike Pence‏Verified account @Mike_Pence
    Assisted in the clandestine travel to Afghanistan of 10 of the 12 terrorists who carried out the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

    What an ignorant, stupid person. First, there were more like 19 or 20 terrorists to take over and handle 4 airliners.

    Secondly, the vast majority of them were Saudi Arabian nationals, not Iranians, as was the leader of those attacks. Which makes all the recent mideastern wars but the initial battle in Afghanistan illegal wars based upon theft and racism.

    To think Pence is what we’re looking at if Trump dies, becomes totally incapable, or is convicted of the Articles of Impeachment! Catastrophe after disaster.

  30. 30.

    jl

    Looking for some good news. Maybe here is some found via Josh Marshall’s twitter today.

    The U.S. Public Still Doesn’t Want War With Iran
    According to recent polling data, the majority of Americans blame Trump’s policies for heightened tensions with Iran—and the killing of Suleimani won’t change that.
    BY SHIBLEY TELHAMI | JANUARY 3, 2020, 4:26 PM

    https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/01/03/killing-suleimani-iran-tension-trump-fault/

    Besides being evil and malicious, the Trumpsters are titanic bumblers and transparent liars.  I hope the article is correct, that most people will correctly attribute significant deterioration of conditions in Middle East on Trump incompetence, dishonesty, and malice.

  31. 31.

    James E Powell

    If this gets the press/media to stop talking about impeachment or any of the other corrupt or criminal practices of his administration, Trump will be doing this once a week.

  36. 36.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Renie:

    Is there no one in charge who has any critical thinking skills?

    Right now, Trump is struggling with the fact that he is not being widely praised for this.  It was supposed to make him as cool as Obama when Obama took out Bin Ladin.  One obvious reaction would be “Maybe if I kill a few more it’ll be clear that I’m a hero?”  Although if these are more standard enemies, there’s also the possibility the military did it without consulting him because they get very little leadership from the top and have to make their own decisions.

  37. 37.

    WaterGirl

    @🐾BillinGlendaleCA:  Double negatives are confusing.

    Isn’t the answer to that “yes”?

    In any case, I feel confident that we are in agreement that no one with critical thinking skills is in charge.

  38. 38.

    jl

    @James E Powell:

    ” If this gets the press/media to stop talking about impeachment or any of the other corrupt or criminal practices of his administration, Trump will be doing this once a week. ”

    I think that we have something similar to the famous ‘bell the cat’ problem. How can the Trumpsters do this in a way that will not be a transparent ploy, or produce bad consequences that will hurt him just as much as help him.

    The hard core Trump base will swallow anything, but they alone cannot win an election or prevent a decisive defeat of Trump and the GOP. What about the rest of the population. Especially since the Trumpsters cannot do anything but cater to the base.

  41. 41.

    WaterGirl

    @Frankensteinbeck: Donald knows in his, hmm, hold on, he doesn’t have a heart.  Donald knows in his hmm, hold on, he doesn’t have a soul.

    Oh, I know!  Donald knows in his gut that he will never be as cool as Obama, and it is killing him.

  47. 47.

    The Thin Black Duke

    I notice that Susan Saran Wrap hasn’t said a damned thing, which automatically makes her smarter than anybody in the Trump admonistration right now, God Help Us.

  54. 54.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: Say, we are looking at whether the RSS feed that now includes comments might be part of the site issues.  Wondering if you (and others) might be doing anything special with RSS feeds to stay on top of comments.

  58. 58.

    Immanentize

    @Cheryl Rofer: God reading that makes me certain we are well and truly fucked.  Not a rational thought in any statement by any official — one, two, or three.

  59. 59.

    chris

    Oh good, another war averted.

    Iraqi security official tells @nbcnews there has been anther US airstrike, this one north of Baghdad targeting Shiite militia leaders. Reports of 6 killed. This right BEFORE a big Shiite protest tomorrow in Baghdad. It seems certain to provoke an escalation.— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) 3 January 2020

  61. 61.

    Immanentize

    Am I experiencing Iranian retaliation?! I was watching Mrs Maisel and my Roku went down!

    We are so screwed.

  62. 62.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: Thanks, just trying to check in with the folks who seem really on top of things. :-)  You were first.

    edit: Baud 2020!  Always on top of things!  (on second thought, maybe not a great slogan)

  64. 64.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: I saw snark betting that Greenwald would be the first to blame war with Iran on the House Impeachment. Waiting for the results of that bet….

  67. 67.

    WaterGirl

    @Cheryl Rofer: I got half of the way through it and I just couldn’t read anymore.  I didn’t see one single answer to a specific question, only BS. Am I wrong in thinking that?  Looks like they all drank the kool aid.

    I bailed when they talked about something they guy did in 2011.

    :: bangs head against back of chair, glad there is no wall in sight ::

  69. 69.

    Roger Moore

    @ewrunning:

    We’re being governed by the intellectual equivalent of an underpants gnome.

    No.  We’re being governed by a bunch of lying liars who are constantly making up bogus public reasons for the stuff they do to hide their corrupt motives.

  73. 73.

    Aleta

    @Cheryl Rofer: That mentality, his attitude in how he conducts the briefing,  as though that’s the way to maintain control.  It’s way too pervasive.  And it replicates itself. 

  74. 74.

    MomSense

    @Immanentize:

    I feel for him.  I know a young guy who started a food company called Redd after a period of being so broke and trying to eat plant based that he made a kind of mush with chocolate because that was all he could afford.  He now has a company that sells plant based high protein bars.  Maybe if Immp looked at this like a challenge to invent a new nourishment delivery system, he could come up with something satisfying.  You may have to find some lab coats and then your kitchen into a science experiment.

  76. 76.

    Mike in NC

    Fat Bastard was taught by mentor Roy Cohn to never back down, only to double down. So at his next hate rally he’ll boast to the rubes how we’re finally teaching those heathen ragheads in Eye-ran not to mess with America and Baby Jesus, and they’ll howl and applaud like trained seals. At least until the body bags start coming back.

  77. 77.

    Barbara

    A stupid question.  What if Iraq tells us to leave? I just have not kept up with the internal politics of Iraq, and I know they are complex, but at some point it will become untenable for us to use Iraq as a de facto base for making war on Iran.  What then?

  79. 79.

    Fair Economist

    @Immanentize: Without a stomach the main issue is that food goes straight to the intestines, which have to add a *lot* of water for digestion to happen, and it’s easy for them to get overloaded. So I’d think it would help to eat foods that already have lots of water in them. So vegetable juices, milkshakes, thin soups, etc. Do meal replacement drinks (e.g. Ensure) help?

  80. 80.

    Jeffro

    1. I hope the 2011 video of trumpov trying to accuse (a ‘weak’, ‘bad negotiator’) Obama of ginning up an Iran strike in order to win re-election plays non-stop from now through November
    2. Less than 48 hours from now, trumpov himself will tweet that you “can’t impeach a president during a time of war like this”
    3. Seeing Ari Fleischer and Karl Rove on Faux News reprising their murderous schtick made me want to reach for a bat…any bat…but most especially a nice unbreakable aluminum one coated with the spirits of 100K+ dead Iraqis.
  81. 81.

    Gvg

    Does Trump own anything anywhere in Iran or Iraq? They both need to confiscate something Trump values. They can claim it’s reparations and say they know whose really to blame.

    i have no real idea of the legalities because this shouldn’t be happening and I don’t think the laws were designed to handle stupid insanity, but I would consider it justified. I want a nice big profitable hotel to go bye bye with no one hurt but Trumps wallet.

  84. 84.

    HinTN

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    there’s also the possibility the military did it without consulting him because they get very little leadership from the top and have to make their own decisions.

    Nope

    Just sayin’

  85. 85.

    Laura Too

    @Gvg: I’m terrified of the thought that they do retaliate by destroying a Trump property…then he uses the US military to defend his property. What do we do then???

  86. 86.

    J R in WV

    I read the State Dept “briefing” transcript — Very sad. No facts, no … well nothing much of reality at all.

    And all the “briefers” were anonymous, Senior State Department Spokesman 1, 2, and 3… when did our official spokesmen become anonymous? Are these guys afraid they will be targets of Iranian hit teams?

    Seems pretty unlikely, as they don’t have anything to do with deciding a military strike… I guess just gutless cowards too ignorant to answer questions. Trumpian in the extreme!

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