Wednesday, January 1, 2020

Trump Gets Triggered: What Is He Going to Do Next?


On Sunday, on orders of President Trump, the United States Air Force carried out five attacks on the Shia armed group Kataib Hezbollah located in Iraq and Syria. The attacks killed at least 25 fighters and injured over 50 others.

Trump gave the order to attack after rockets on Friday hit the K1 base which houses Iraqi and U.S. troops near Kirkuk, Iraq. One U.S. "contractor" died, two Iraqi and four U.S. soldiers were wounded.

Notes Moon of Alabama:
Instead of finding the real culprits - ISIS remnants, disgruntled locals, Kurds who want to regain control over Kirkuk - the U.S. decided that Kata'ib Hizbullah was the group guilty of the attack.
Kata'ib Hizbullah is a mostly Shia group with some relations to Iran. It is part of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) which were founded and trained by Iran to stop and defeat the Islamic State (ISIS) when it occupied nearly a third of Iraq and Syria. KH is like all PMU units now under command and control of the Iraqi Ministry of Defense.
To take revenge for the death of one of its mercenaries the U.S. air force attacked five camps where Kata'ib Hizbullah and other Iraqi forces were stationed...
The U.S. and Israel have already killed hundreds of Iraqi forces that are aligned with Iran. But these were the most egregious strikes.
The attacks, of course, did not sit well with the Shia in Iraq.

By smashing the main door and setting fire to a reception area, Iraqi protesters broke into the U.S. embassy compound in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Tuesday.

Instead of quickly recognizing Iraq, and the entire Middle East, as a hell hole for U.S. troops and beginning the withdrawal of all them from the Middle East, Trump reacted by ordering more troops into the hot spot and acting tough on Twitter:
According to Defense Secretary Esper, 750 paratroopers from 82nd Airborne Division will deploy “immediately” to the Middle East. Other reports indicate that the Pentagon has approved the deployment later this week of an additional 4.000 U.S. troops to the region.

The deployment of additional forces adds to the nearly 14,000 additional American troops that have deployed to the U.S. Central Command area of operations over the last six months, according to The Military Times.

A quick response contingent of Marines was also immediately deployed to the Green Zone.



The warhawks are ecstatic.

But Trump in the past, at the last minute, has appeared reluctant to commit the U.S. to military actions, Sunday's attacks notwithstanding.

The next 48 hours may reveal if Trump is willing to create a bigger mess and get more aggressive with the U.S. military in the region.

While the protesters did not breach the inner walls of the U.S Embassy, the embassy personnel are for all practical purposes surrounded.

Trump can either order an evacuation of the embassy and then draw down troops, order an evacuation and start blasting or keep essential personnel at the embassy and refortify it. The call is Trump's but it is pretty obvious there is no easy way to stay without more trouble. Things will just continue to escalate if the US does not withdraw.

If Trump chooses to stay, he will go down in history as making a bigger blunder than George W. Bush.

Tulsi Gabbard tells the tale of what Trump has done with the order to attack Kataib Hezbollah:

Congressman Thomas Massie has the correct perspective on this one:
-RW

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