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bdamomma

(63,940 posts) Tue Jan 7, 2020, 12:03 PM Jan 2020

Article: Why Trump did it: Iran killing pushed impeachment out of the headlines

https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/why-trump-did-it-iran-killing-pushed-impeachment-out-of-the-headlines-showed-off-some-hardware-and-impressed-the-christian-fanatics/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=3396

snip of article:

For all the talk about Donald Trump wanting to end the “forever wars,” I think we knew what he was really talking about, don’t we? He wanted to end the “Bush-Obama” wars because his only real foreign policy has been to reverse anything his predecessors did. That includes all of them going back to at least Franklin D. Roosevelt, and maybe Abe Lincoln.

It’s been clear from the beginning that Trump had no real understanding of world affairs or history, beyond a vague notion that America has become weak and feckless due to our foolish adherence to silly legal and moral restraints on our behavior. Despite our economic and military dominance in every corner of the globe, he feels the U.S. has been humiliated by strongmen who think we’re soft. It is the worldview of a spoiled child.

It was inevitable that he would one day decide to demonstrate military strength to prove his mettle, and entirely predictable that he would do it impulsively at a moment of extreme political danger. His anger and frustration over the impeachment process have been palpable. He’s been way in over his head from the start, and the stress of trying to do a job he is so clearly unqualified to do has undoubtedly frayed his nerves. He was going to lash out — it was only a question of when and where.

Until now, each time Trump was tempted to take forceful military action he either hedged or backed off. This time he went with the most extreme option, reportedly under the influence of the most hawkish members of his administration, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence. He ignored protocol once again and failed to notify Congress or key U.S. allies (even as he blabbed to his wealthy customers at Mar-a-Lago that they could expect something “big” to happen.) He has doubled down on this whole thing every day since the assassination, tweeting threats to commit war crimes against Iran and demanding that the Iraqi government pay for the costs of the American invasion and occupation, or face crippling sanctions if they now insist that U.S. troops leave the country.

Not news to DU'ers.