Iran’s secretive Quds Force fired rockets at U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. So President Trump ordered the military to take out the ...
Iran’s secretive Quds Force fired rockets at U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. So President Trump ordered the military to take out the Forces’ commander, Qassim Suleimani.
That irked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who said Trump did not have the authority to take the action.
“We cannot put the lives of American servicemembers, diplomats and others further at risk by engaging in provocative and disproportionate actions,” Pelosi said on Thursday night. “Tonight’s airstrike risks provoking further dangerous escalation of violence. America –- and the world -– cannot afford to have tensions escalate to the point of no return.”
Pelosi thinks the president should have asked her for permission to take out a dangerous madman in Iran.
“The Administration has conducted tonight’s strikes in Iraq targeting high-level Iranian military officials and killing Iranian Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani without an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Iran. Further, this action was taken without the consultation of the Congress.”
And Pelosi demanded that the Trump administration come in to Congress to explain. “The full Congress must be immediately briefed on this serious situation and on the next steps under consideration by the Administration, including the significant escalation of the deployment of additional troops to the region,” she said.
Suleimani and the Quds Force have killed hundreds of Americans and other coalition forces over the years, and in recent months the Force has attacked bases in Iraq, including a Dec. 27 attack that killed a U.S. contractor and wounded several service members, setting off the latest conflict.
But the Department of Defense defended the move in a statement.
“At the direction of the President, the U.S. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization,” the DoD said.
“General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region. General Soleimani and his Quds Force were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more. He had orchestrated attacks on coalition bases in Iraq over the last several months – including the attack on December 27th – culminating in the death and wounding of additional American and Iraqi personnel. General Soleimani also approved the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad that took place this week.”
And the DoD aded that “This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans. The United States will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world.”
Rep. Adam Schiff, a longtime Trump hater, said “Congress didn’t authorize and American people don’t want a war with Iran. All steps must now be taken to protect our forces against the almost inevitable escalation and increased risk.”
But unlike Pelosi, Schiff noted that Suleimani “was responsible for unthinkable violence and world is better off without him.”
In addition to Suleimani, U.S. forces also killed the deputy of the militias known as the Popular Mobilization Units in Iraq, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. He had been accused of plotting attacks in the U.S. since the 1980s and was convicted in absentia and sentenced to death by Kuwait for his role in the 1983 attacks on the U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait.
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