As we try and come to grips with the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, we are trapped by two circumstances. It is in the nature of intelligence services to be secretive. They don't wish to divulge ANYTHING, though in a democracy, they grudgingly concede they must. So any information about why we killed him was bound to be incomplete.
The greater tension is that this administration lies so routinely and so shamelessly that it's impossible to believe anything that comes from the White House apparatus. They are no more reliable than "Baghdad Bob" was.
You can't just assassinate people. You can take preemptive measures in the face of imminent harm. But Trump clearly just wanted to kill an important Iranian and then make up a reason afterwards. There is no evidence Soleimani was an imminent threat. Or rather, maybe there is, but intelligence sources can't divulge it publicly. Of course, they don't seem to be able to divulge it privately either.
The crisis of credibility in American foreign relations is a big problem. Will it be repaired by removing Trump?
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