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I guess we all know the big news from the weekend, that the Current Occupant* staged a drone assassination of the top Iranian general. He had Iraq unknowingly lure him out into the open to do it. Now Iran’s mad and threatening retaliation, Iraq’s mad and is evicting all US forces, our allies are mad because they received no notice (except Israel), Congress is mad because they got no notice either, except for a few stray Republicans. Various rich Mir-A-Lago elbow rubbers got notice, though, of “something big about to happen.”

So, no one’s happy. Except, Vlad. He’s very happy because instability in the Middle East and among Western allies is good for Russia. Does Trump ever do anything that’s not good for Russia?

Trump was desperate to retaliate over the Embassy bombing, lest it is marked as “another Benghazi,” so he had his generals draw up some options. According to the New York Times, the option to drone-bomb the general was only included to make the other options look reasonable and measured. Naturally, that’s the one Trump went for; a truly disproportionate response.

Trump and his people say they have intel that there was a serious plan afoot and their action eliminated it. That’s intel from our intelligence agencies… the ones they’ve spent the last two years defaming as agents of the “Deep State.” So, in other words, they’re all wrong when they said that there are dangerous connections between Trump and Russia, and wrong when they found that Trump obstructed justice ten different times, but they totally nailed this Iranian plan.

Does anyone wonder how taking out a guy who thinks up a plan eliminates the execution of that plan? I’m pretty sure the dead general told somebody about his big plan. His being dead won’t stop jack shit.

In today’s society, Republicans are duty-bound to defend whatever dumbass decision the president* makes, so not only were the talking heads bobbing in agreement on Fox “News,” but the troll farms were working overtime to provide jingoistic memes and the ditto-heads military fetishists were busy sending them around. I culled a few out for inspection.

The issue is not that we “defended Americans” against Iran after the embassy bombing, but the way we did it. You can “defend Americans” with sanctions or a nuclear bomb. There’s a lot of room to maneuver in between.

We assassinated a military leader of a foreign country in a non-wartime period, on the soil of a third country, after using false pretenses to gain their assistance. There are United Nations rules against that sort of thing. And even if there weren’t, it was basically kicking a hornet’s nest, without a plan for the fallout. (Other than bomb them some more.) We made a martyr out of this guy and moved Iranian citizens from pursuing rebellion against their government to uniting and rallying against us!

Also note that you could say Obama was “defending Americans” with every foreign policy move, but that didn’t quell any of his critics on the right, whether he was sending troops or bringing them home.

This meme, as usual with this crowd, takes an element of Democratic thought, turns it sideways, and criticizes that as if it was something we believe. No wonder they're confused.

 There’s a big difference between the two sets of actions. Obama was engaged in two wars, in Afghanistan and Iraq, both started by the previous Republican administration. The president doesn’t need Congressional approval to carry out any activity during a time of war. There was also the pursuit of ISIS, which was an extension of the previously sanctioned wars.

Trump’s assassination of the Iranian general did not take place in a time of war but appears to be the opening salvo of a new war, which indeed requires Congressional approval, or at minimum, notification. So yes, we Democrats do freak out about the president* unilaterally deciding to launch military action. As would Republicans if a Democrat did the same (or anything at all).

This meme is an apples to oranges comparison and cannot be taken seriously.

No one in their right mind is criticizing the soldiers called upon to execute military action in Iran (or Iraq, or wherever the hell they’re going.) And no one’s overlooking their service. But it’s easier to pretend that we are because then military fetishists can wrap themselves in the flag and pledge true love to the big guns of the US Military Services, which I’m sure gives them such a tingle way down in the nether regions.

What we DO criticize is sending our beloved troops into another war of choice meant solely as political gestures to save face and divert attention. People who really love the troops should balk at sending them back to the Middle East under such flimsy pretenses, at the behest of those who don’t know anything more about “service” than the number of pieces in a tea set.