• Editor’s note: Yelm Blog readers know I have been predicting here a Wag the Dog scenario from President Trump during the 2020 election year. Such action in the first days of the new year have drawn wide-spread worldwide condemnation except from many Congressional Republicans and Israel’s Netanyahu. An Impeachment Trial will begin soon and Trump will have more on his hands now that he threw gasoline on the smoldering Middle East fires.
• The assassination of Iran’s top military leader may give a “feel-good moment” to the President and some of his base, however many Trump supporters see no plan or subsequent actions by Trump to tone down the rhetoric and war mongering. One of the reasons many people voted for Trump was his commitment to get the U.S. out of wars, and to bring American troops home from the Middle East. Now the opposite has occurred drawing criticism even from FOX News!
• “Fox News host Tucker Carlson slammed President Trump’s decision to kill top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Mahdi al Muhandis,” saying that “Washington has wanted war with Iran for decades,” by Spencer Neal, Washington Examiner. Read more
• Trump’s 2011 interview about then-President Obama going to war with Iran to get re-elected has been prophetic about himself (see below), as Obama opted to not assassinate the Iran leaders.
• President Bill Clinton was widely criticized in 1998 for a four-day bombing campaign that occurred at the same time the U.S. House of Representatives was conducting his Impeachment hearing.
• The past provides insight as prologue to events of this new year.

Steve Klein, Yelm Community Blog, host

“Trump predicted Obama would attack Iran [in 2011] to ‘get elected'” – Obama assessed the risks outweighed the benefits!

“In a 2011 video, Donald Trump predicted a ‘weak and ineffective’ President Obama would attack Iran in order to win a second term. Trump followed this notion up at other points in 2011 and 2012,” quoting MSNBC’s Morning Joe. Click here for this prophetic quote of Donald Trump now about himself.

Missile strikes a distraction from Clinton’s [1998] impeachment scandal

“Some critics of the Clinton administration, including Republican members of Congress,^[29] expressed concern over the timing of Operation Desert Fox.^[30] The four-day bombing campaign occurred at the same time the U.S. House of Representatives was conducting the impeachment hearing of President Clinton. Clinton was impeached by the House on 19 December, the last day of the bombing campaign. A few months earlier, similar criticism was levelled during Operation Infinite Reach, wherein missile strikes were ordered against suspected terrorist bases in Sudan and Afghanistan, on 20 August. The missile strikes began three days after Clinton was called to testify before a grand jury during the Lewinsky scandal and his subsequent nationally televised address later that evening in which Clinton admitted having an inappropriate relationship.

“The Operation Infinite Reach attacks became known as “Monica’s War” among TV news people, due to the timing. ABC-TV announced to all stations that there would be a special report following Lewinsky’s testimony before Congress, then the special report was pre-empted by the report of the missile attacks. The combination of the timing of that attack and Operation Desert Fox led to accusations of a Wag the Dog situation,” from Wikipedia. Read more