It has come out in the news that Trump authorized the murder of Soleimani seven months ago according to reports.
President Donald Trump authorized the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani seven months ago if Iran’s increased aggression resulted in the death of an American, according to five current and former senior administration officials.
The presidential directive in June came with the condition that Trump would have final signoff on any specific operation to kill Soleimani, officials said.
That decision explains why assassinating Soleimani was on the menu of options that the military presented to Trump two weeks ago for responding to an attack by Iranian proxies in Iraq, in which a U.S. contractor was killed and four U.S. service members were wounded, the officials said.
The timing, however, could undermine the Trump administration’s stated justification for ordering the U.S. drone strike that killed Soleimani in Baghdad on Jan. 3. Officials have said Soleimani, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force, was planning imminent attacks on Americans and had to be stopped.
“There have been a number of options presented to the president over the course of time,” a senior administration official said, adding that it was “some time ago” that the president’s aides put assassinating Soleimani on the list of potential responses to Iranian aggression. (source)
Ted, Walid and I have speculated- admitting the further proof in necessary to give a more complete understanding to the story -that this debacle with Iran is being intentionally fomented as a part of a strategy of tension, since it bears a semblance to the Iran-Contra “October Surprise” that was used to put Reagan into office in 1980 and resulted in the uncovering of weapons deals with the Iranians in order to fund US-backed death squads in Nicaragua, the Contras, in their fight against the USSR-supported Sandinistas.
It is true that military operations are often planned in advance, but this is an interesting piece of data. What we can draw from this is that it is likely there was no ‘imminent threat’ from Iran and this person, but rather he was intentionally targeted and his execution was delayed for some reason. Since 2020 is an election year, it is interesting how the year was essentially started with his murder and all of the political talk generated by it that is resulting in Trump being able to present himself as a “tough” person who can “de-escalate” a “conflict” that, given the reports of how Iran and the US talked about striking each other before this incident started, is just a giant show with bombs for the public to watch and be distracted by.
World War III is coming, but when it does happen it is not going to come in an obvious way. It is going to take people by surprise just as the German invasion of Poland on September 1st, 1939 did, and nobody will know what to think, instead saying “how did this happen” when the signs of buildup were taking place for years.
What will be most interesting is if in the future- likely in 2021 or beyond -it comes out that these events with Iran were also tied to US-Iranian weapons deals and other forms of illegal or questionable business. For now, what we can say is that this Iran situation is highly suspicious, that it is likely a lot more complex than what it appears, and that instead of being fooled by public shows of violence and nationalist rhetorical statements, it is better to take a calm, action-based approach to any president no matter what the party and his achievement, and realize that what is happening here is just the manipulation of the public to realize the financial and temporal power goals of some men who believe they are above the law and can set the standards for what is right and wrong without themselves being bound by them and conducting themselves as such.