Just So We're All Clear

“They’re allowed to kill our people. They’re allowed to torture and maim our people. they’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people. And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural site? It doesn’t work that way," POTUS SAID.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 6, 2020

Regarding retaliation from Iran:
“If it happens it happens. If they do anything there will be major retaliation."

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 6, 2020

POTUS on possibility of US presence being forced out of Iraq: "We're not leaving unless they pay us back for it" (referring to the air base).

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 6, 2020

I'm starting to think the toddler with the shotgun is a preferable scenario.  The man literally has no idea how anything works.  I don't think he's self-aware enough to be crying for help.   I do think he shouldn't be allowed anything sharper than a rubber ball.  I also think his default setting is belligerence but he's a bully who strikes only when he thinks it's a decisive blow.  He won't wage war against Iran, he'll just make the situation in the middle east worse and probably drive Iraq into the hands of the Iranians.

He'll fuck things up royally, in other words, and declare victory despite reality.  But at least McConnell will get his judges, so remain calm, all is well.

Last Sunday, on the second to last day of Hanukkah, POTUS called Ron Lauder, one of his most prominent Jewish supporters and an old friend, and screamed at him that Lauder should be doing more to support him, per 3 ppl briefed. https://t.co/3MbPlo6qHI

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 6, 2020

Although it's obvious publicly and privately, that Trump is losing it.

Pompeo's bureaucratic win comes with grave risks. Here's the checklist. Latest story w/ @jdawsey1 @shaneharris and @DanLamothe https://t.co/hDga7apLjV pic.twitter.com/mc7cOrUS3F

— John Hudson (@John_Hudson) January 6, 2020

After all, it's not like we cut the head off a snake:

Critics have also questioned how an imminent attack would be foiled by killing Soleimani, who would not have carried out the strike himself.

“If the attack was going to take place when Soleimani was alive, it is difficult to comprehend why it wouldn’t take place now that he is dead,” said Robert Malley, the president of the International Crisis Group and a former Obama administration official.

Besides:

As increasingly troubling and alarming as @realDonaldTrump’s behavior has become in recent days (which sure is saying something), what’s far, far scarier is the absence of _any_ voice of authority from within his own party condemning it—to say nothing of doing something about it.

— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) January 6, 2020

That's a feature, not a bug.

It’s not about Suleimani. It’s not about Iran. It’s not about the Geneva and Hague Conventions.

It’s about the fact that the president of the United States is mentally unhinged.

— George Conway (@gtconway3d) January 6, 2020

 

It's both.  They aren't, after all, mutually exclusive.