The US and Iran are at it again. Never mind that the voters who put Trump in office wanted out of Middle Eastern conflicts. 2020 Brings us McCain's Ghost as Trump threatens to bomb, bomb Iran.
However; I don't think there is much "controversial" about the drone strike was a war crime, I don't think it is since as far as I know, Iraq is a war zone, The now deceased general is a legitimate military target and Congress long ago allowed military action in Iraq, but doesn't have the constitutional authority to say
how that military action takes place.
Besides, most of the people complaining now didn't have problems with the drone strikes done by Obama, some of which killed non-combatants. The difference here, in my opinion, is that the US was driven by a "please don't hurt us" fear under the previous admin, versus "Meet the 'bully' head on" position of the current one. Standing up to an adversary always carries risk. That's the nature of the game.
And a "game" is what it is. Which brings me to the actual point of this post. I'm old enough to recall the Iran crisis under president Carter. I also know enough history to know that the
US has been meddling in Iran for a long time.
In the early 1950s a struggle for control of the Iranian government developed between the shah and Mohammad Mosaddegh, a zealous Iranian nationalist. In March 1951 Mosaddegh secured passage of a bill in the Majles (parliament) to nationalize the vast British petroleum interests in Iran. Mosaddegh’s power grew rapidly, and by the end of April Mohammad Reza had been forced to appoint Mosaddegh premier. A two-year period of tension and conflict followed. In August 1953 the shah tried and failed to dismiss Mosaddegh and, after riots broke out, fled the country. Several days later, however, Mosaddegh’s opponents, with the covert support and assistance of the United States and the United Kingdom, restored Mohammad Reza to power.
This later lead to:
The shah traveled to Egypt, Morocco, The Bahamas, and Mexico before entering the United States on October 22, 1979, for medical treatment of lymphatic cancer. Two weeks later Iranian militants seized the U.S. embassy in Tehrān and took hostage more than 50 Americans, demanding the extradition of the shah in return for the hostages’ release. Extradition was refused, but the shah later left for Panama and then Cairo, where he was granted asylum by Pres. Anwar Sadat.
The rest, as is said, is history.
Later we funded "our guy in Iraq", Saddam Hussein to be the front against Iran. We paid good too. Here's Saddam meeting with Bush (spit) man, Rumsfeld.
I'm here to review your progress...
Saddam was known to use chemical agents against Iranian troops. Something known to be a "war crime" but didn't bother those in the US security apparatus because, Iran.
Of course, Saddam got caught out there in the Kuwait trap and ended up on the short end of the Bush stick.
Here's a medal of honor for all that work you did for us
And here we are in 2020 still dickering about in Iraq and Iran.
Of course a "new" wrinkle in this is the whole Islamic State thing in Syria and Iraq, which Iran and Russia has been fighting against and the US has been arming (calling them freedom fighters against Assad. lol).
So while the drone strike makes sense within the confines of the "logic" used within these neo-con circles, I go back to the voters who put Trump in office. They wanted out of the Middle East. Now more troops are headed there.
