News from Baghdad

I’ve been deeply disappointed by President Trump’s reluctance to take on certain dictators. Unfortunately, the senior Iranian murderer killed in Baghdad by the US air force was not personally a dictator. However, he soldiered for the turbaned junta so his demise can’t be a bad thing.

The most important fact is that US soldiers have killed a dangerous adversary and not the other way round. Let the ayatollahs and their guards mourn and rage. (I’ve read that some Iranians revere Suleimani as a hero of the Iran-Iraq war but stupid wars can’t beget true heroes.) It’s generally a good idea to remind various puffed-up frogs and roaring lice who’s the big boss in the big world.

We’re told that Iran will in all likelihood retaliate. Surely it won’t be able to attack the US in the 9/11 fashion. They could attack American troops outside the US, but soldiers -especially US soldiers – are supposed to take risks. American servicemen are not hapless conscripts but well-trained, well-compensated professionals who had signed up for the job on their own accord.

Actually, I wouldn’t be so sure that Iran would try to strike back other than in a purely symbolic gesture. It very much depends on the lesson they will have learned from the killing of Suleimani and al-Muhandis:

Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA analyst who now serves as a Democratic congresswoman… noted she served under two presidents, Barack Obama and George W Bush, who both decided against attacking Suleimani out of fear of retaliation.

If Tehran realizes that the US doesn’t fear retaliation that much anymore, or that it’s willing to take risks, it would have no choice but to de-escalate.

As for my private feelings about all this… Perhaps the only things I find worth fighting for in this world are liberty, enlightenment and beauty. Iran is a great country ruled by scumbags who stand for slavery, ignorance and ugliness. There’s no question for me which side is in the right in this standoff. I can only hope that more enslavers, fanatics and torturers perish as a result.