BEN NORTON—This is far from the first time that Trump has made such threats against civilians. During his presidential campaign in 2015, the Republican leader vowed to kill the family members of militants. “The other thing with the terrorists is you have to take out their families, when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families,” Trump repeated.
ERIC ZUESSE—Russia’s strategy has always been to delay World War III until all other means of pacifying America’s ravenous aristocracy have become exhausted — which hasn’t happened yet.
THE SAKER—The Iranians are far most sophisticated players than the mostly clueless US Americans. So the first thing I would suggest is that the Iranians are unlikely to do something the US is expecting them to do. Either they will do something totally different, or they will act much later, once the US lowers its guard (as it always does after declaring “victory”).
MoA—The Iraqi government, its prime minister and its president, the major religious scholars in Iraq and the heads of major Iraqi parties have all condemned the U.S. attack. During the last few days the public mood in Iraq has changed from mild anti-Iranian to strong anti-U.S. sentiment. As there is no apology coming out of Washington, only more threats, the Iraqi parliament is likely to agree to ask the U.S. forces to leave.
MAX PARRY—No one should be fooled into believing that (US) Congress is motivated by anything other than a desire to punish Turkey for making the U.S. look bad while rebuking Trump for deviating from the bipartisan consensus of endless war.