Iran's attack last night on 2 American bases in Iraq proved once again Iran has the military capabilities and acumen of Paraguay. The retaliation showed the genius of President Donald John Trump's killing General قاسم سلیمانی (no one can spell his name in English).
It also showed the American media is a joke that should not cover anything more important than a PTA meeting. They were wrong in their predictions of World War 3 because they based that on a misguided belief that the president is evil, insane and unintelligent.
This began with an Iranian gang attacking our embassy in Iraq. Democrats gleefully labeled it President Trump's Benghazi.
Peter Beinart, a journalism professor at the City University of New York, set the template for media coverage. In Atlantic monthly, he wrote, "Over the past 18 months, Donald Trump has picked a fight with Iran that he won’t end and can’t win. That fight has had horrifying consequences for the Iranian people, led Tehran to restart its nuclear program, and now left parts of the American embassy compound in Baghdad in flames. In the days and weeks to come, Trump’s policy will likely lead either to war or to additional American humiliation, or both."
Totally wrong. Completely. But why would anyone expect instant in-depth analysis on Iran from a J-school teacher?
I am no expert on anything. My assumption was President Trump knew what he was doing because of his track record. This proved prescient.
For years, General قاسم سلیمانی operated openly, believing America would not attack him for fear of starting World War 3. President Trump called his bluff. And here we are. Last night, Iran threw some missiles at us and immediately announced it will stop as long as we do not retaliate their retaliation for our retaliation.
This was face-saving. Sun Tzu said, "When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard."
He also said, "The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting."
How worried was the president before the attack? He sent the Pentagon home early due to snow.
The media misread that as a sign of weakness. It was business as usual. Besides, even if a war broke out, we are not going to send in the 101st Chairborne, are we?On CNN, Barbara Starr notes that the Pentagon shit down early today over "what was supposed to be a major snow storm"— Betsy Woodruff Swan (@woodruffbets) January 7, 2020
🙃
President Trump knew Iran could not retaliate. The media portrayed him as a madman starting World War 3. After Iran embarrassed itself, the media embarrassed itself.
If Trump wants a face-saving off-ramp, this is probably it. https://t.co/2ThAF8N2mB— Matt Lewis (@mattklewis) January 8, 2020
Some around POTUS think he is looking for an off-ramp. https://t.co/VgFbbQ8JG3— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 8, 2020
They dug a hole and keep digging. That so many used the off ramp analogy informs me Ben Rhodes likely decided on that spin. He's the brother of the head of CBS News and the Obama flunky who sold the Iranian deal to reporters.I know this is going to sound crazy in the heat of the moment but if this is true my bet is that Trump takes the off-ramp. https://t.co/zcZNBUjGqa— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) January 8, 2020
Tom Rogan of the Washington Examiner asked 5 days ago, "Why does anyone listen to Ben Rhodes on foreign policy?"
My short answer is because reporters are stupid. This is not an ad hominem but a fact based on their track record. At every step of the way, the nation's media has been wrong about Donald Trump. They said he was not a serious candidate, that he would not win the nomination, that he would not be elected, that he would quit before taking office, that he would resign, that the economy would crash, that Comey would bring him down, that Mueller would bring him down, that bombing Syria would start World War 3, that tweeting Kim Jong Un would start World War 3, that his tax cuts would not work....
Readers get the picture. Reporters do not. They never learn which shows a tenacious stupidity.
President Trump does not want war. He has said that all along. He also said he was preventing a war by killing General قاسم سلیمانی. It certainly seems like he has prevented one.
Now negotiations can begin between the USA and Iran, a land of 81 million people that was once Westernized.
That was long ago when I was in my 20s. I am 66 now. I do not expect them to shed their burkas and Sharia law.
But surely they no longer want to be a pariah nation.
President Trump holds the Iranian economy in his hands, and therefore the continuation of this regime. I suspect there have been negotiations already. If not, how difficult is it to get a Farsi interpreter, to pick up the phone, and to start talking. You may have noticed that Donald Trump likes to talk. You may also have noticed that he is quite good at it.
You may also have noticed that President Trump figures out how to win before engaging battle. He knew the outcome before approving the shot.
In June, Iran knocked down a drone. President Trump refrained from a military confrontation. 7 months later, he shot one missile, killed General قاسم سلیمانی , and set in motion the end of 40-plus years of antagonism.
Once upon a time, war was good for business. No longer because it disrupts foreign trade and makes the livestock nervous.
President Trump is pretty easy to understand. He just wants to learn the game and win. And he does. Real estate. Books. TV show. Presidency.
The people in the press are largely too stupid to see this. Again, nothing personal, just fact. They have an excuse. They were taught by people like Professor Beinart.
He ended his gloom and doom piece in Atlantic, "When it comes to Iran, Trump has shifted Republican foreign policy away from war without shifting it toward diplomacy — the only stable alternative to war. So he’s caught in a kind of purgatory. The American embassy compound in Baghdad, now covered in pro-Iranian graffiti and strewn with broken glass, is the latest symbol of that purgatory. It probably won’t be the last."
Exactly a week later, Beinart's reputation is in the Dumpster along with four years of all the other media predictions.
ReplyDelete*sigh*
I'm a much better President.
*hic*
Swan’s twitter typo is great. I am sure Mr. Lt. Col. Vidman shit down.
ReplyDeleteThe reporters are the ones that need to save face. Unfortunately for them, their readers and viewers have already taken or are on the off ramp.
LOL. Democrats still feed at their Deep State Media trough.
Delete"a land of 81 million people that was once Westernized"
ReplyDeleteThose grand ol' days under the Shah? LOL! As long as you defend the orange moron, nothing is too ridiculous.
What do you think happened around 300 BC? Snark aside, cultural “modernization” is a western concept - the mullahs reject that.
DeleteIranian women are among the most beautiful in the world-and now among the most abused..
DeleteForced prostitution, abortion, no rights.
They are property...
What Douglas DC said.
DeleteYour knowledge of History is thinner than the atmosphere at 200,000 Feet.
DeleteNonny, when you first began posting drivel, I thought you were merely the product of our failed education system. It's beginning to look like you are a failure of our failed system.
I’m wondering if Trump is hoping an effective denuclearization Iranian deal would be a model for North Korea to follow.
ReplyDeleteThe Ukrainian plane “crash” is an interesting wrinkle, there were Canadians, British and German passengers. If the Iranians can’t prove that this wasn’t an accidental shotdown (they are refusing access to the black box) that just might be the moment Iran really is isolated completely. They really shot themselves in the foot on this one.
This is bigger than the attack itself.
DeleteI'm of the school that it was a trigger happy missile crew...
Problem with Iran's propaganda is they believe their own BS..
Kind of like Hitler..
Roger, that. One of the German's greatest flaws was belief in their own propaganda along with a lack of strategic understanding.
DeleteWhen idjits like Beinart say that "diplomacy" is the "only stable alternative to war" what they mean by diplomacy is appeasement. Just like all the Wise Men knew that Chamberlain was preventing war with Hitler and that Reagan was going to cause WW3 by walking out of negotiations with Gorbachev.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Some historians believe that British appeasement policies allowed the Brits to begin rearmament. Some in the government realized how far they'd allowed their defense establishment to degrade after The Great War. Some flaws in this analysis, but worth consideration, nevertheless.
DeleteAt the time Chamberlain signed the Munich agreement, Churchill said, "He had a choice between war and dishonour. He chose dishnour. Now we shall have war."
DeleteNB
Indeed. Neither the German nor the British armed forces were ready for a war, but Hitler pulled off a better bluff. Only the German leadership had a mindset for war. The Western Allies remained traumatized by The Great War. Germany wanted revenge and may of the Allied leaders agreed that the Versailles Treaty was unfair to Germany. That's one reason why Hitler's pre-WW2 actions met with so little resistance.
DeleteApocryphal story-when the SAS came up with the idea of assassinating Hitler- Churchil was supposed to have said-"Are you MAD!He's is our best asset -they might replace him with someone who knows what they are doing!"
DeleteAbsolute truth. By late 1943, Hitler's poor tactical and strategic military decisions were more beneficial to the Allies than to the Axis.
DeleteI'm enjoying our conversation. Thanks!
"Reagan was going to cause WW3" New faces, same old media.
DeleteObama fed the crocodile, hoping it would eat him last.
DeleteTrump is turning that croc into a suitcase and new boots.
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DeleteNow that Trump has defined some of our boundaries for Iran, diplomacy might be feasible. The Iranians now understand POTUS means what he says (62 rockets into Syria) and more recently that he takes seriously his obligation to protect American lives. Trump is treating the Iranians like children and who knows, it might work.
DeleteChollaman
I find it so gratifying to see The Mighty Media and Know-Nothing Cognoscenti tumble from their perch.
ReplyDeleteThey slither back on it, however.
DeleteMedia? Isn't that the corncob stuff for a brass polisher?
ReplyDelete"That so many used the off ramp analogy informs me Ben Rhodes likely decided on that spin."
ReplyDeleteYou can smell that puss head a mile away. He really is an amoral jackwad, who will write anything to justify the left's misdeeds.
"He's the brother of the head of CBS News and the Obama flunky who sold the Iranian deal to reporters."
No doubt, that wasn't a hard to sell to a bunch of ignorant ideologs that now compose the leftist MSM. Heck, Rhoads didn't even have to sell the killing of Gaddafi to them, as they bought that hook line and sinker. Look what happened afterward. Chaos, Bengazi, arms sales gone wild, etc. Very few, if any, offered any sketicism of the move, or what would happen after Gaddafi was gone.
IMO, you can't use enough of what the left considers ad hominems to describe what has become the leftist MSM press. They've earned every one of them.
FLOlson
"President Trump turned Democrats into warmongers and Deep State Media into blubbering idiots."
ReplyDeleteNo, I think they were always blubbering idiots. He just got them to expose the full extent of their idiocy.
Time to release Delta and the SAS to start taking out the Iranian proxy forces leadership. The Israeli Defense Forces do it, time for us to begin the whittling down of those forces.
ReplyDeletePeter Beinart is a very good example of the credentialed establishment fool who thinks he knows it all. It is indeed very telling how quickly his hit piece on Trump has been so thoroughly repudiated by the actual events on the ground
ReplyDeleteThe much bigger story is the impact of vaporizing the General on US negotiations with China, North Korea and the EU. This vaporizing event has given them a whole new set of calculus to incorporate into their deliberations. The Trumpster does not bluff and he is extremely effective when he decides to hurt you. Killing the General left a mark.....
ReplyDeleteWe have no need, at this time, to use military force on China, North Korea, or the Eew. President Trumps non response after Iran threw in the towel, and his strategic use of economic sanctions is getting their attention.
DeleteBeinart’s Wiki entry ends with this:
ReplyDeleteHe keeps kosher,[2] regularly attends an Orthodox synagogue, and sends his children to a Jewish school.
He was also detained once after landing in Israel on his way to protest alongside the Palestinians.
This, my friends, is a VERY confused LibCommie Jew.
LOL. They are too stupid to see.
ReplyDeleteI agree.
ReplyDelete"On CNN, Barbara Starr notes that the Pentagon shit down early"
ReplyDeleteDid the Pentagon shit down early or shut down early? ;-)
The liberal commies shit themselves inside out.
DeleteWolf Howling has a great analysis:
ReplyDelete"Iran’s drive to a nuclear weapon is now off the Iran Deal glide path and is at the top of our foreign agenda once again.
"From 2006 through 2012, the single most important foreign policy issue was Iran’s drive to a nuclear arsenal. Obama lied to America about his intentions, and only after being elected did he turn around and make a deal, putting Iran on a glide path to a nuclear arsenal. Ben Rhodes, who bragged about manipulating the press corps, started an echo chamber effect to get this Deal signed. Thank God that deal is now dead — and not just mostly dead, but really most sincerely dead."
http://www.bookwormroom.com/2020/01/08/trump-wins/
Meanwhile the Jews in Iran, who has the 2nd largest Semite population in the entire ME, are mourning and praying for the slain General.
ReplyDeleteThen they joined the local Christians and paid their respects to his family while visiting their home. They know who the true enemy is the Zionists.
Amazing what you can get people to say under the gun.
Delete"freedom of religion" --- as long as you're a Muslim.
DeleteLike I always said facts don't matter to zealots. That story was from the Jerusalem Post. Oops.
DeleteYes, oppressed religious minorities are going to be dancing in the streets when an enemy is killed, at the same time as the majority population is marching through town in the funeral procession. They are mourning that it took so long, and praying that he stays dead.
DeleteIf you think paying a shiva call to be polite and stay alive is an indication of their true feelings and an example of religious freedom, you are hopelessly naive.
--rbbr
Counterpoint ... the Golden Cage
ReplyDeletehttps://www.breakingisraelnews.com/142875/jews-and-christians-in-iran-forced-to-pay-respects-at-soulemani-home/
Not sure if you're aware of this, but the author actually admitted that she had Iran in mind when she wrote the book not long after the Islamic revolution in Iran. She changed the bad guys to white men because even back then being called "racist" was the worst thing ever.
ReplyDeleteBen Rhodes on the Media: "They literally know nothing".
ReplyDelete