Quote Originally Posted by Philippus Flavius Homovallumus View Post
Someone asked me today - "Why would Trump do this? What was he trying to achieve?"

I opined that he was probably trying to remove this particular Iranian general who has been a thorn in the side of the West for decades and in this he had been successful, and to look for any deeper thinking on Trump's part was probably a mistake.

This is one of those circumstances where we tend to see things a certain way but which history may view differently. The general was, we must remember, in Iraq meeting with dissident militia commanders and Iraq is a US ally - or puppet.

On balance, I would say his assassination will be a net positive for America, but it must be acknowledged that Trump in engaging in a "race to the bottom" where America is starting to use the tactics previous employed by Russia albeit openly and with an air of impunity.
There may be good reasons prior administrations declined to kill this man. The capacity to do so was never in question.

As for Iraq being our ally, I doubt our having blown up Suleimani at Baghdad airport is looked upon favorably by anyone (except maybe Saudi Arabia). There's probably a reason Iraqi security forces allowed protesters to breach the US embassy perimeter. Maybe we're just adding reasons.

American foreign policy under Trump in a nutshell: