Iran assassination: Trump channels his inner neocon
Donald Trump has capitulated to the war hawks. Utterly. Completely. Just like Barack Obama did. Just like they all do eventually in this new age of perpetual war. The idea that he was what he campaigned as - a non-interventionist who wanted to end regime-change wars - was a tenuous one at best. But at times there have been encouraging signs: the historic meeting in the DMZ with "Rocket Man" Kim Jong-Un, the unceremonious and exceedingly satisfying dismissal of John Bolton as National Security Adviser when he tried to push Trump into an unwanted war with Venezuela, and the withdrawal (actually more of a consolidation, admittedly) of ground forces from parts of Syria despite howls of protest even from normally anti-war types. And he hasn't actually gotten us into any new wars yet. Barack Obama couldn't say that. By this point in his presidency his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, had already goaded him into a bombing campaign he didn't want against Libya, and with disastrous consequences for that country.
But even before recent events, those bright spots were the exception to the rule. Trump ordered a barrage of missiles to be fired at Syria in 2017. That was allegedly based on intelligence that the Assad regime was responsible for a chemical weapons attack there, intelligence that there is now no doubt was cooked up by the West to justify the strike. It's very possible Trump didn't know the intelligence was fake at the time and legitimately believed he was punishing Syria for gassing children, but if he didn't he should have. Every time he stated publicly his intention to withdraw forces from Syria, a new alleged chemical attack magically appeared for warmongers to bash him over the head with. Regardless of the actual circumstances, the fact remains that the US rained missiles down on a country at Trump's order based on a lie. Then there was the fact that thousands of troops were actually being redeployed to Saudi Arabia while Trump claimed to be bringing them home from Syria. And in one of the most brazen statements of his presidency, Trump finally said troops would actually remain in parts of Syria because "we're keeping the oil". One could cite a half-dozen other examples, but none less worthy of a non-interventionist president than withdrawing America from the INF treaty with Russia, guaranteeing a dangerous arms race with a country that already had some of the most technologically advanced missiles in the world.
But the assassination of Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani is arguably his most dangerous move yet. The Syria debacle preexisted Trump. And in any event, Syria is no Iran. The US had reached a  détente with Iran in the form of the Iran deal. But despite his relatively dovish talk as a candidate, Trump was hawkish against Iran from the start. He held what seemed an excessive antagonism toward the country, and wasted little time in tearing up the deal that Iran had been abiding by. When Iran downed an American drone over its territory in June last year, Trump was initially bellicose and may have come close to ordering a strike against the country. But in his typical Let's Make a Deal style pivoted toward offering talks with the Iranian leadership, only to be rebuffed. Thus the Soleimani strike is against the backdrop of a steady ratcheting-up of tensions with the Islamic Republic, and the commander was reportedly very close to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. And as I pointed out here, Iran already had a long list of grievances against the United States.
Soleimani was a hero to many in Iran. He cut his teeth in the 1980s rising through the ranks in the war Saddam Hussein launched against Iran with US backing. He was a leading figure as commander of the Quds Force in eliminating Islamic State as a threat in Iraq in 2015. One might consider the enemy of our supposed enemy (Islamic State) a potential friend. But the war-gamers in Washington aren't into making friends with Iran's leaders. And their stenography journalists at the New York Times floated the very scenario of murdering Soleimani mere hours before he traveled to Baghdad. With his hatred of Iran, that suited Trump fine. Thus, a man who took the lead in routing ISIS in Iraq was turned into a martyr. Shortly after, Administration officials had the temerity to say they were committed to "de-escalation" of the conflict. (they always are when they're the ones who have committed the most-recent aggression). But just hours ago comes word of another American strike on a convoy north of Baghdad.
The US is exposed in the Middle East. It says it has 5,000 troops in Iraq alone, with about 200,000 in the Middle East as a whole (that it admits to), and an untold number of military contractors. Iran has already vowed revenge, and members of the Iraqi parliament have called to remove the legal basis for any continued American presence in the country. It's way past time for the US to simply withdraw, fully and completely. The Bush Administration committed the crime of the century using 9/11 and false intelligence about weapons of mass destruction as a pretext to invade and destroy a country of 30 million people. That we're still there almost 17 years later, occupying and assassinating, is just a continuation of the travesty.
As for Trump, he can no longer legitimately claim to be opposed to the warmongers. He has become what he campaigned against.Â
Richie Graham is based in Little Rock Arkansas USA and writes from a free-market libertarian, anti-interventionist perspective.