There have been plenty of misguided takes on President Trump’s decision to kill Gen. Soleimani. Elizabeth Warren’s is perhaps the most egregious.
Warren claims that Trump hit Soleimani to distract America from his impeachment. She states:
We know Donald Trump is very upset about this upcoming impeachment trial. But look what he’s doing now. He is taking us to the edge of war.
There was a reason that he chose this moment, not a month ago, not a month from now, not a less aggressive, less dangerous response.
Actually, there are probably several reasons, none of which has anything to do with impeachment. A month ago, Iranian-backed militias hadn’t attacked our embassy in Baghdad, nor had terrorists killed that American contractor.
In addition, it’s not clear that we had intelligence indicating that Soleimani was planning major attacks against the U.S.. For that matter, we might not have had the opportunity to take out the terrorist general a month ago.
Moreover, if Trump wanted to distract America from his impeachment through an attack on the enemy, the time to do it would have been in late November. At that point, impeachment was dominating the news, as witnesses presented evidence that made it clear Trump had withheld military aid to Ukraine for the purpose of pressuring the Ukrainians into investigating Joe Biden.
At the present time, by contrast, few Americans are paying attention to impeachment, and with good reason. Nancy Pelosi hasn’t presented the Senate with articles of impeachment.
“A month from now” would also probably be a better time than the present to “wag the dog.” By then, Pelosi may have gotten around to presenting the impeachment articles, and the Senate might be holding a trial (or some sort of proceeding).
In sum, last week was precisely the wrong time for Trump to take out Soleimani if his goal was to divert attention away from impeachment. For the time being, Pelosi has already done that for him.
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