Diversion or Danger
By Hank Silverberg

The fog of peace. The assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and several of his minions  (and that’s what it was –an assassination)  in Baghdad this past week has heightened tensions around the world to a level we have not seen since 9-11. The big difference is, in 2001 the world was on our side. The United States had been attacked. More than three thousand innocent people had been murdered. Our right to find and punish those who did it was just. Our allies were certainly with us. But now as 2020 starts, it is America, and basic American values, that are being questioned worldwide.  
           

                       

Don’t get me wrong. Soleimani was no innocent victim. As leader of Iran’s Quds force, an elite wing of Iran’s military apparatus, he was no angel. He was directly responsible for the killing of hundreds of people in Iraq and indirectly responsible for the deaths of many others by coordinating proxy attacks by Iraqi Shiite militias and Hezbullah. He killed more of his own people than Americans. If he had been killed on some battlefield somewhere,  everyone including the Iraqi government, would be cheering. But he wasn’t. The U.S. tracked him down on Iraqi soil and blew him away, along with a leader of the anti-U.S. Iraqi Shiite militia he had been sponsoring.     

Donald Trump had taken a road that both Barack Obama and George W. Bush had rejected before because of the repercussions this path would generate. 

Not only are the Mullahs in Iran angry, but so is the government of Iraq, and dozens of pro-Iran militias from Damascus to Beirut to Kabul.  


Iran’s immediate reaction beyond the usual “death to America” chant, is to drop all pretense about nuclear weapons development and negate what was left of the nuclear weapons agreement. It had been signed and enforced during the Obama Administration. Trump had already pulled the U.S. out of it months ago. It’s been clear for decades that Iran has not been our friend, and wasn’t going to be any time soon. 

Mr. Trump followed up his military action with more rhetoric that, if carried out, would actually be criminal. Amazingly, he continued to use Twitter to carry out foreign policy.

	Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
1/4/20, 5:52 PM Iran is talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets as revenge for our ridding the world of their terrorist leader who had just killed an American, & badly wounded many others, not to mention all of the people he had killed over his lifetime, including recently....

	Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
1/4/20, 5:52 PM ....hundreds of Iranian protesters. He was already attacking our Embassy, and preparing for additional hits in other locations. Iran has been nothing but problems for many years. Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have.....

HERE IS THE CRIMINAL PART:  

	Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
1/4/20, 5:52 PM ....targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!

Here is the section of the War Crimes Statue of the International Criminal Court which makes such action criminal. 


" I.  Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly." 

One of the sites included on the list for example, is the ancient ruins of the Persian Capital of Persepolis begun between 515-518 BCE, which the Iranians have been working hard to preserve.  

(Photo courtesy of the Ancient History Encyclopedia)

https://www.ancient.eu/article/214/alexander-the-great--the-burning-of-persepolis/          


Saner people may prevail. Senator Tim Kaine (D, VA) and Dick Durban (D, Ill) and some of their colleagues have already introduced a resolution, under the War Powers Act, to prevent Mr. Trump from going any further. The current climate in the Senate does not allow for any bi-partisan movement to stop him.  


https://thehill.com/policy/defense/476732-congress-to-clash-over-trumps-war-powers

Of course Trump had a response on this as well, tweeting late Sunday that his Twitter comments were all he needed to inform Congress about his actions. It will be debated whether that meets the rules under the war powers act. But it certainly doesn't meet the intent of the law for a President  to get the advise and consent of congress before going to war.  


It is likely Iran will retaliate using some proxy force somewhere in the world to attack America and American interests. And because Israel remains our friend and a thorn in the side of Arab dreams and Persian ambition, it is also likely to be targeted once again.     


There have been some reports that Mr. Trump was given several options on how to retaliate for the violent protests at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad (where no one was hurt). Killing Soleimani was the most extreme, and military planners were reportedly shocked when the President decided to go that way.   

The worry, of course, is that all of this could spill over to a full blown war. Iran is not Saddam Hussein or even Bashir Assad. Their military is sophisticated, modern and battle-hardened. And even though sanctions have damaged their economy, and there is some opposition to the current regime that has spilled over into deadly protests, some Iranian leaders still dream of a Greater Persia in the Middle East. (The ever-intrusive Russians will be standing by to pick up the pieces if things don't go well.) 

All this plays out while Trump remains impeached, and the partisan battle in the Senate over how to handle his trial remains unsettled. 


The skeptical among us, like this writer, might also believe that Mr. Trump created the crisis to divert us from impeachment and the acts that got him there. It's what used to be called “wagging the dog.” That is often done closer to an election.  But if you look deeper, you will see the same Republicans in the Senate who voiced their strongest support for killing Soleimani, also have been vehemently defending the President’s actions on Ukraine which led to the impeachment. (see link above) 


(Of historical note: Americans have always been reluctant to change Presidents in time of war. Exceptions: Roosevelt to Truman when FDR died, and LBJ to Nixon when the WAR was the issue.)   

And finally, the clock is ticking on the Presidential election that is now just 10 months away. Actual votes in Democratic primaries start early next month in New Hampshire. 

Five U.S. Senators (Sanders, Klobachar, Warren, Booker and Bennett) who will have to vote on Impeachment and any War Powers Act Resolution, are among those Democrats still running for the nomination for President. 

News Briefs:

All this talk of war produced one interesting side bar this past week. On Friday (1/3/20) the Selective Service website crashed. It seems as the Pentagon sent several thousand more troops to Iraq and nearby Kuwait as reinforcements, many people began to worry about being drafted.   
____________________________________________________

Selective Service

✔@SSS_gov

Due to the spread of misinformation, our website is experiencing high traffic volumes at this time. If you are attempting to register or verify registration, please check back later today as we are working to resolve this issue. We appreciate your patience.

________________________________________________________________________________

With that, it’s good to remind everyone that we still have an "all volunteer" military. The men and women who serve are there because they choose to be. But, all MALES between 18 and 25 are still required to register for the draft.  

It’s been 50 years since the Vietnam War--the last time that system was used to draft men into the military.  


Any discussion of a renewal of an actual draft is likely to explode on college campuses with many baby boomers marching right next to their grandchildren.

https://www.wric.com/news/whats-rending/selective-service-website-down-as-wwiii-trending-on-twitter/

And also on the subject of November’s election, there's this story from North Carolina. 


https://www.npr.org/2020/01/05/785672201/deceased-gop-strategists-daughter-makes-files-public-that-republicans-wanted-sea


The secret files of a deceased Republican strategist have been made public by his daughter. In those files, NPR reports Stephanie Hofeller reveals that her father, Thomas Hofeller, was working on ways to redraw Congressional districts in 12 states to favor Republicans. Of note: the North Carolina plan was rejected by the courts and the plans did not work in several other states. Thomas Hofeller was also involved in the Trump Administration’s failed effort to push for a citizenship question on the federal census.

And finally, this:
This week Jews across America are showing their pride of being Jewish. It's part of an effort to educate the general public about the dangers and history of antisemitism. There are currently 6.9 million American Jews. It is our faith, our culture, but NOT our nationality as some have tried to claim. Our nationality is

American. Jews have been here since Colonial times and have made significant contributions to the American way of life. Below is a very incomplete list of just some American Jews who have contributed to the success of the United States. There are thousands of us who have done so.

 This list  is a very small sample and in no particular order of importance. It comes mostly from my memory.

Albert Einstein (Scientist)
Irving Berlin (song writer, composer of God Bless America)
Stephen Spielberg (Movie director)
Bernard Baruch (Helped form the League of Nations)
Louis  Brandeis (Supreme Court Justice) 
Betty Friedan (Noted feminist)
Ruth Handler (Invented the Barbie Doll)
Ann Landers (Advice columnist)
Kirk Douglas (Actor)
Edward G. Robinson (Actor)
Sandy Koufax (Hall of Fame pitcher)
Emma Lazarus (Poet)
Uriah Levy (Commodore, War of 1812 Veteran)
Jonas Salk (Developed the polio vaccine)
Haym Solomon (Financial backer of the Continental Army who saved the American Revolution)
Louis B. Mayer  (Hollywood mogul)
Levi Strauss  (Created blue jeans) 
Lauren Bacall (Actress) 
Woody Allen  (Actor/director)
Jon Stewart (Comedian, political commentator)
The Marx Brothers  (Entertainers)
Bob Dylan (Folk music icon)
Mel Brooks (Actor, director, entertainer)
Julius Rosenwald (Philanthropist, built 53k schools for southern black children during Jim Crow)  
Hank Greenberg (Hall of Fame first baseman) 
Arthur Saltzberger  (Publisher of the NY Times)
George Gershwin (Songwriter) 
Paul Samuelson (Economist)
Barbra Streisand (Entertainer)
Stephen Sondheim (Composer, songwriter) 
Paula Abdul (Singer, entertainer)
The Three Stooges (Moe, Larry, Curley and Shemp)
Wolf Blitzer (CNN Correspondent)
Thomas Freidman (Pulitzer Prize winning Journalist, NYT) 
Felix Frankfurter (Supreme Court Justice) 
Carl Sagan (Astronomer)  
J. Robert Oppenheimer (Theoretical physicist)
Eric Fromm (Social psychologist)

Henry Kissinger (Secretary of State and noted diplomat) 

Richard B. Setlow (Noted DNA researcher and my great uncle)  



Again, just a brief list. 

         ( Your comments and suggestions are welcome)

(Here is a blatant plug for my book “The Campaign,” which could have been ripped from today’s headlines, though I wrote it two years ago. You can purchase a copy at BN.com, Amazon.com or send me an email at hanksilverberg@gmail.com for details on how to get a signed copy for less than the retail cost. )