Congress lacks the courage to put the brakes on Trump’s Iran debacle

By SJ Otto
President Donald Trump’s big move against Iran, assassinating military leader Qasem Soleimani, seems to have back-fired in some ways.
For example US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said, shortly after the attack, that Iraqis are celebrating the death of Soleimani by “dancing in streets.” A few days later millions of people took to the streets to mourn Soleimani and show respect for him.
According to US News and World Report:

“Crowds condemned "the terror act of the U.S." and gathered holding photos of the late general chanting "Down with the U.S." and "Down with Israel."

If Pompeo seriously thought the people of Iran were going to be thankful to the US for killing
Soleimani, he was seriously mistaken. In this past year many Iranians were protesting their government for a failing economy. But Soleimani was a hero to the Iranian people. Killing him outraged most of Iran’s people. Both Trump and Pompeo seemed caught off guard by the whole thing.
We now know that “Pentagon officials reportedly offered US President Donald Trump a list of options for dealing with escalating tensions with Iran. Trump ultimately chose to target a senior Iranian military official, Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US airstrike late Thursday.”

Trump chose the most extreme option. According to Business Outsider:

“The officials offered the option of killing Soleimani mainly to make the others seem more appealing, which The Times described as a common tactic for US officials advising presidents.”

One thing that Pentagon officials were able to do was reject Trump’s threat to hit Iranian cultural sites. That would have been a disaster. The world has already seen what ISIS (Islamic State) and the Taliban have done to the relicts of the ancient world. There is no excuse for disrespecting someone else’s religious beliefs. That would have enraged Moslems the world over.

Everything that is happening in Iran demonstrates what can happen when an irresponsible buffoon is allowed to make foreign policy. Left unchecked Trump would have us in a disastrous position. He has cause extensive damage and out rage to the people of the Middle East. Because he commands the largest and most extensive military in the world, he gets away with his arrogant ways. And even those in the Democratic Party, who should know better, have allowed Trump to do what he is doing, which is creating a huge mess. The entire US Congress has allowed Trump to act as a war criminal. Congress is almost as irresponsible as Trump is, for allowing these war crimes to simply go on unabated.

If Congress lacks the courage to stop this war, the citizens of this country need to step in and do something about it. No country has the military to stop the US Army. That is up to us, the citizens of this country.