Trump said Iran will pay...no bluff

[hollohas]

He said they'd pay. He wasn't bluffing.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/break...di-reports-say

BREAKING: U.S. Kills Two Top Iranian Military Leaders, Bigger Than Bin Laden, Al-Baghdadi, Reports Say

U.S. military forces have reportedly killed two top Iranian military commanders involved in terrorism on Thursday night in Iraq in an airstrike in what analysts said was a significantly bigger deal than the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.


Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the Quds Force, and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis were the two Iranian military leaders who were killed.

[Gman]

Yeah. Come to Iraq and stir up shit by attacking our embassy? BOOM!!!
Shadowy Iranian general behind elite Quds force among 7 killed in Baghdad, officials say

Donald Trump on Twitter:

[spqrzilla]

Soleimani is a POS who should have been killed decades ago.

[MrPrena]

Time for deck of cards with supreme pizza and supreme leader's face on it.
Recycle those old Iraq cards with iranian supreme leader and associates face. While at it,let's put former iranian president Ahmadinejad and supreme pizza with lots of pork toppings on as JOKER cards.


Just like the good old days.

[davsel]

Full Pentagon statement on US strike that killed Soleimani
The Department of Defense sent the following statement to DailyMail.com:

'At the direction of the President, the U.S. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.

'General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region. General Soleimani and his Quds Force were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more. He had orchestrated attacks on coalition bases in Iraq over the last several months - including the attack on December 27th - culminating in the death and wounding of additional American and Iraqi personnel. General Soleimani also approved the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad that took place this week.

'This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans. The United States will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world.'

[davsel]

Not sure if this is real, but I like it either way.

[hollohas]

And then there's this

[Bailey Guns]

Lesson #1: There's a cost if you wanna play with the big boys.

[Hummer]

Trump just did what George Bush didn't have the balls to do. A major factor of U.S. casualties in Iraq was due to Iranian IED attacks coordinated by Soleimani. Bush should have wiped out the ayatollahs when we had the men and equipment there. Instead he let the killing of U.S. soldiers continue and the war languish only for the bastard traitor Obama to pull the troops out and give the Iranians the $billions needed to fully occupy and control Iraq. That was Obama's Russian collusion.

In April 2019, the State Department announced Iran was responsible for killing 608 U.S. troops during the Iraq War. Soleimani was the head of the Iranian and Iranian-backed forces carrying out those operations killing American troops. According to the State Department, 17 percent of all deaths of U.S. personnel in Iraq from 2003 to 2011 were orchestrated by Soleimani.

War with Iran is not what this country, or Trump, wants. But Trump is in a quandary and sometimes leaders have to act in spite of the difficulties.

[hollohas]

This is a pretty good piece on this event.

https://freebeacon.com/columns/trump...tollahs-bluff/

The successful operation against Qassem Soleimani, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, is a stunning blow to international terrorism and a reassertion of American might. It will also test President Trump's Iran strategy. It is now Trump, not Ayatollah Khamenei, who has ascended a rung on the ladder of escalation by killing the military architect of Iran's Shiite empire. For years, Iran has set the rules. It was Iran that picked the time and place of confrontation. No more.

Reciprocity has been the key to understanding Donald Trump. Whether you are a media figure or a mullah, a prime minister or a pope, he will be good to you if you are good to him. Say something mean, though, or work against his interests, and he will respond in force. It won't be pretty. It won't be polite. There will be fallout. But you may think twice before crossing him again.

That has been the case with Iran. President Trump has conditioned his policies on Iranian behavior. When Iran spread its malign influence, Trump acted to check it. When Iran struck, Trump hit back: never disproportionately, never definitively. He left open the possibility of negotiations. He doesn't want to have the Greater Middle East?whether Libya, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, or Afghanistan?dominate his presidency the way it dominated those of Barack Obama and George W. Bush. America no longer needs Middle Eastern oil. Best keep the region on the back burner. Watch it so it doesn't boil over. Do not overcommit resources to this underdeveloped, war-torn, sectarian land.

The result was reciprocal antagonism. In 2018, Trump withdrew the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action negotiated by his predecessor. He began jacking up sanctions. The Iranian economy turned to shambles. This "maximum pressure" campaign of economic warfare deprived the Iranian war machine of revenue and drove a wedge between the Iranian public and the Iranian government. Trump offered the opportunity to negotiate a new agreement. Iran refused.
And began to lash out.

Last June, Iran's fingerprints were all over two oil tankers that exploded in the Persian Gulf. Trump tightened the screws. Iran downed a U.S. drone. Trump called off a military strike at the last minute and responded indirectly, with more sanctions, cyber attacks, and additional troop deployments to the region. Last September a drone fleet launched by Iranian proxies in Yemen devastated the Aramco oil facility in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia. Trump responded as he had to previous incidents: nonviolently.

(Continues...)