Submitted by M Tovey (United States), Jan 7, 2020 at 16:07
There should be some shock for those who are mesmerized by the lack of wartime posturing in the Middle East, since not everyone agrees that America in general and Israel specifically, have been engaged in the battle of the ages against the admitted antipathies of proponents of Islamic ambitions to impose Shari'a and ummah worldwide. Seriously, nothing was solved since the fall of the Ottomans a hundred years ago and nothing has really softened their desires to reclaim what was lost: ie. Erdoǧan.
From an American position and posture, there had been a misguided sense of America's part since the inability to be the leader in international politics had been ceded by previous administrations in some perverted desire to be friends with everybody when the ambitions of a secret few would not be served adequately were that the case.
President Trump, much to the dismay of many, if not most perennially political institutionalists (both foreign and domestic), does not operate with any known form of political acumen and, to pull a quip from the American vernacular, does not play well with others unless he has a valid reason to do so. The logic for his reasoning does not necessarily compute in this world of secular reasoning. It never will.
Reactions to the wartime casualty of the Iranian terrorist commander are to be expected; there has never been a rational expectation of otherwise. Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi (sp) are examples. Neither of those countries have been the same since their demise, repercussions still being the rule of governance outside of the normal rule of law.
It is the same circumstance here, even though the Quds leader was not the leader of the Republic, he was the soul of their ambitions. That ambition has been stunted; but make no mistake, the wartime standing is no closer to being resolved with that name being added to the martyr listing and their is the resultant cautionary tale.
A further caution is taking shape as well; America is not being looked at as the defender of freedom in this circumstance: America being the defender of the world in WW1 and WW2 is not the America being served notice that the world is not glad for these actions. The UN is out of place in trying to be the arbiter of what America should or should not do on behalf of freedom.
So there should be no surprise that the war everyone thinks might be the result of the loss of Iran's Quds leader is already in play: rocket play in Gaza and retaliation strikes on Iranian fronted militias are not wargames in virtual reality environments; there are casualties mounting and whether declared or not, America has been in a defensive posture to such things ever since the Barbary Coast, then 1979; and now, in solidarity with Israel, forging a history the world will never be able to resolve on their own. The need for waiting is superfluous since the actors are already on stage; their course in history already set.
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