• Below are the words from my daily political diary. It is quite long so scroll on by if not interested. But do stay around and add your commentary and point of view to the thread.
• Diary 1/12/20
I have been intrigued by this situation in Iran. Though "intrigue" is a little too benign for the range of emotions this whole thing causes me, and many Americans I suspect.
First, until recently, when a bomb blew up Soleimani's car leaving his arm forty feet away from the vehicle, I never even heard of the guy.
Frankly, I never even heard a lot of things since President Trump took office. I had no idea that Europe did not contribute as much to NATO as once agreed upon. The only thing I knew about Ukraine is some people from there I grew up with around Broadway in Baltimore.
And I consider myself a political junkee.
Below are summaries of the Iranian situation as it stood at the time of this writing.
The biggest mystery/surprise of it all is that airline shot down in the middle of this.
First, no one notified the Tehran airport to stop all flights until they were done lobbing revenge missiles upon Iraqi barracks with American soldiers within? They got airplanes pulling out just as they were about done sending rockets that way?
The downing of that airplane was either intentional or accidental by those rockets.
Over 125 innocent people killed by those wonderful Iranians who govern so well and are so beloved.
That's the biggest mystery of all.
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Trump's speech on Iran situation.
Good morning. I'm pleased to inform you: The American people should be extremely grateful and happy no Americans were harmed in last night’s attack by the Iranian regime. ... For far too long -- all the way back to 1979, to be exact -- nations have tolerated Iran’s destructive and destabilizing behavior in the Middle East and beyond. Those days are over. Iran has been the leading sponsor of terrorism, and their pursuit of nuclear weapons threatens the civilized world. We will never let that happen. Last week, we took decisive action to stop a ruthless terrorist from threatening American lives. At my direction, the United States military eliminated the world’s top terrorist, Qasem Soleimani.
As the head of the Quds Force, Soleimani was personally responsible for some of the absolutely worst atrocities. He trained terrorist armies, including Hezbollah, launching terrorist strikes against civilian targets. He fueled bloody civil wars all across the region. He viciously wounded and murdered thousands of U.S. troops, including the planting of roadside bombs that maim and dismember their victims. Soleimani directed the recent attacks on U.S. personnel in Iraq that badly wounded four service members and killed one American, and orchestrated the violent assault on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. In recent days, he was planning new attacks on American targets, but we stopped him. ...
In recent months alone, Iran has seized ships in international waters, fired an unprovoked strike on Saudi Arabia, and shot down two U.S. drones. Iran’s hostilities substantially increased after the foolish Iran nuclear deal was signed in 2013, and they were given $150 billion, not to mention $1.8 billion in cash. Instead of saying "thank you" to the United States, they chanted "death to America." In fact, they chanted "death to America" the day the agreement was signed.
Iran mounted an attack in response to the termination of Soleimani – a very meager one. The military knew it was coming
Read the rest
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/read-full-transcript-trump-s-iran-speech-n1112456
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This has been a masterful display on the part of Donald Trump and a shameful one on the parts of democrats and the left wing media. Once more he plays chess to their checkers.
“Assassination!” spits Chris Matthews.
Trump is on the verge of a 9-11 attack on Iran!, screams Ed Markey
“This could very well be war!” cries Elliot Engel
“Endless war!” wails Chuck Schumer NY Times:
Soleimani is like Martin Luther King!
Richard Engel of NBC is scared to death that Trump might taunt Iran
That jerk Seth Moulton: “Maybe Trump will kill Putin next!”
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https://hotair.com/archives/john-s-2/2020/01/08/ukrainian-passenger-jet-went-iran-last-night/
There was a plane crash last night in Iran which killed 176 people. The crash happened just a couple hours after the Iranian attack on Iraqi bases where Americans are stationed. Iranian state TV attributed the crash of the Ukrainian airliner to mechanical problems, however, the NY Times is now reporting that aviation experts aren’t so sure. The alleged sequence of events, and a video of the crash raise questions about whether this might have been an attack of some kind:
Though the evidence remained sketchy, aviation experts said that what was known indicated that the plane could have been attacked. Investigators should have that possibility “at the top of their agenda,” said Peter Goelz, a former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board in the United States…Ukraine International Flight 752 left Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran at 6:12 a.m. on Wednesday and abruptly ceased the automatic transmission of flight data about two to three minutes later, though it remained in the air for a few minutes longer.Experts say that is an extremely rare sequence of events, even in a catastrophic accident — and all the more unexpected in a relatively new plane, built in 2016, of a model with a very good safety record…“Planes just don’t blow up in mid air,” said Richard Aboulafia, vice president for analysis at Teal Group, an aviation consulting firm. “It doesn’t work like that.”
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Time for a Smile
then there this as well: 