A 'GOOD' ASSASSINATION?
DOGS KNOW: IF SOMETHING SMELLS BAD, IT IS BAD
I KEPT WAITING TO WRITE THIS.
For clarity. For fairness. For the “full” story.
For not wanting to look like a jerk when new information would make everything I had written seem wrong, stupid, and idiotic – proof that it was the kind drivel that you'd expect from a dog.
But now, several days later, I realize there is no good time to write about Donald Trump. Anything we read or see on TV is twisted and suspect, since he’s a sociopath and a liar. And no matter the “story,” it’s instantly eclipsed by a fresh outrage and sacrilege.
I should have just said my piece. Now, I will.
We, you and I, the United States of America, our country – our brave fighting men and women, carrying out the orders passed down our commander-in-chief – just performed an assassination.
Like all assassinations, it was a chicken-shit, cowardly act, in which the person being murdered had no way of fighting back, no warning, no chance to defend himself.
No different, except in time and place, from when Jack Kennedy’s brains were splattered over his wife in Dallas; or when Bobby Kennedy was shot in Los Angeles; or when Martin Luther King was gunned down in Memphis; or when Abraham Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theater in Washington.
But, Trumpians would say: there’s a big difference in the death of Qassem Soleimani last Friday and those murdered Americans who are so dear to our history.
For clarity. For fairness. For the “full” story.
For not wanting to look like a jerk when new information would make everything I had written seem wrong, stupid, and idiotic – proof that it was the kind drivel that you'd expect from a dog.
But now, several days later, I realize there is no good time to write about Donald Trump. Anything we read or see on TV is twisted and suspect, since he’s a sociopath and a liar. And no matter the “story,” it’s instantly eclipsed by a fresh outrage and sacrilege.
I should have just said my piece. Now, I will.
We, you and I, the United States of America, our country – our brave fighting men and women, carrying out the orders passed down our commander-in-chief – just performed an assassination.
Like all assassinations, it was a chicken-shit, cowardly act, in which the person being murdered had no way of fighting back, no warning, no chance to defend himself.
No different, except in time and place, from when Jack Kennedy’s brains were splattered over his wife in Dallas; or when Bobby Kennedy was shot in Los Angeles; or when Martin Luther King was gunned down in Memphis; or when Abraham Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theater in Washington.
But, Trumpians would say: there’s a big difference in the death of Qassem Soleimani last Friday and those murdered Americans who are so dear to our history.
AND THEY HAVE A POINT.
Last Friday, there was no “lone gunman.” It was a drone that did the killing. Not the sort of robot that prowls Stop & Shop supermarkets, looking for spills in Aisle 6. This was the flying kind, with remote pilots directing a rocket or or two to blow up an Iranian general leaving Baghdad airport.
But maybe that's not the difference that Trumpsters mean.
They might say you can't equate an Iranian dirtbag like Qassem Soleimani to America's heros. He was the general directing his terrorists to plant bombs on highways to blow up Americans who drove over them. So the difference is that Soleimani was killed from above, while his targets were blasted from below?
Nope, again.
How about this? Jack Kennedy was a friend of ours - and a good man. But Qassem Soleimani was no Jack Kennedy; he was an enemy - and a bad man.
BUT NO ASSASSINATION IS GOOD.
Assassination is the kind of thing Soleimani might do his U.S. counterparts.
And while people can make good and clever arguments for assassinations, they eventually end up as “end justifies the means” excuses. Every assassin has his good reason. Maybe he does it for the money; or to shut up the voices in his head; and maybe to avoid impeachment.
Trump’s yes-persons say Soleimani was planning “imminent” attacks on U.S. soldiers and diplomats. Maybe; maybe not. We have to keep in mind the ongoing count by the Washington Post of Trump’s “false or misleading claims," with the president's total number of lies now at 15,413.
But even a dog like me knows better than to go down that sort of rabbit hole, because that's just chasing justifications for assassinations, when the issue isn't strategic, but moral.
Nor do I feel like digging a hole to China by trying to unearth legal and dictionary definitions.
The Associated Press, for example, has a writers' “stylebook” that defines assassination as “the murder of a politically important or prominent individual by surprise attack.”
That seems pretty clear in nailing Trump's move as an assassination until you get to “murder.” Is one soldier killing another soldier in wartime a “murder?” Are we at “war?” Are we about to be?
Last Friday, there was no “lone gunman.” It was a drone that did the killing. Not the sort of robot that prowls Stop & Shop supermarkets, looking for spills in Aisle 6. This was the flying kind, with remote pilots directing a rocket or or two to blow up an Iranian general leaving Baghdad airport.
But maybe that's not the difference that Trumpsters mean.
They might say you can't equate an Iranian dirtbag like Qassem Soleimani to America's heros. He was the general directing his terrorists to plant bombs on highways to blow up Americans who drove over them. So the difference is that Soleimani was killed from above, while his targets were blasted from below?
Nope, again.
How about this? Jack Kennedy was a friend of ours - and a good man. But Qassem Soleimani was no Jack Kennedy; he was an enemy - and a bad man.
BUT NO ASSASSINATION IS GOOD.
Assassination is the kind of thing Soleimani might do his U.S. counterparts.
And while people can make good and clever arguments for assassinations, they eventually end up as “end justifies the means” excuses. Every assassin has his good reason. Maybe he does it for the money; or to shut up the voices in his head; and maybe to avoid impeachment.
Trump’s yes-persons say Soleimani was planning “imminent” attacks on U.S. soldiers and diplomats. Maybe; maybe not. We have to keep in mind the ongoing count by the Washington Post of Trump’s “false or misleading claims," with the president's total number of lies now at 15,413.
But even a dog like me knows better than to go down that sort of rabbit hole, because that's just chasing justifications for assassinations, when the issue isn't strategic, but moral.
Nor do I feel like digging a hole to China by trying to unearth legal and dictionary definitions.
The Associated Press, for example, has a writers' “stylebook” that defines assassination as “the murder of a politically important or prominent individual by surprise attack.”
That seems pretty clear in nailing Trump's move as an assassination until you get to “murder.” Is one soldier killing another soldier in wartime a “murder?” Are we at “war?” Are we about to be?
I’LL LEAVE IT TO YOUR COMMON SENSE, an area in which my late co-author, Cat, was expert, to agree or not whether the killing that Trump ordered was an assassination.
In my own case, as a sweet and now mature dog, I know that when something smells bad, it is bad. And that assassinations are and have been bad for America.
Had Lincoln lived, perhaps regional divisions that plague us today might have healed after the Civil War. Race relations certainly would be different if King had lived longer. Bobby Kennedy might have been a terrific president, and his brother as well.
Meanwhile, we'll be waiting to see what the assassination that Trump cooked up does to advance peace on earth.
If the Iranians are the crazed terrorists that they are said to be, and they hurry up in making nuclear bombs in their hidden labs, maybe we won’t have to wait 10 years for climate change to destroy the planet.
But there is one bright spot.
We are comforted by this one certainty: Trump’s steady temperament and sound judgment. Just yesterday he Tweeted this reassuring message:
In my own case, as a sweet and now mature dog, I know that when something smells bad, it is bad. And that assassinations are and have been bad for America.
Had Lincoln lived, perhaps regional divisions that plague us today might have healed after the Civil War. Race relations certainly would be different if King had lived longer. Bobby Kennedy might have been a terrific president, and his brother as well.
Meanwhile, we'll be waiting to see what the assassination that Trump cooked up does to advance peace on earth.
If the Iranians are the crazed terrorists that they are said to be, and they hurry up in making nuclear bombs in their hidden labs, maybe we won’t have to wait 10 years for climate change to destroy the planet.
But there is one bright spot.
We are comforted by this one certainty: Trump’s steady temperament and sound judgment. Just yesterday he Tweeted this reassuring message:
Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have ... targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats! |
So the plan is becoming clearer.
First, he orders the drone to take out a general.
And his next targets will be the museums?
How about a shot or two at the Sphinx? Never could stand that pile of rocks. What country did they tell me that's in?
First, he orders the drone to take out a general.
And his next targets will be the museums?
How about a shot or two at the Sphinx? Never could stand that pile of rocks. What country did they tell me that's in?
 THE PRESIDENT OF HER DREAMS? This was posted on Donald Trump's Twitter site, presumably by one of his fans. No mention of whether the fight 'n commander-in-chief's battle gear includes his (bone) spurs. |
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