It did exactly that!
Iran reportedly informed the Iraqi government of an imminent attack shortly beforehand. The United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the attack was intended to kill, however some analysts suggested the strike was deliberately designed to avoid causing any fatalities in order to dissuade an armed American response
50/50 male/female
I don't give Trump credit for accidentally harming stuff like NATO because the same rash decisions that did that almost started war with Iran
The biggest thing keeping us out of a war with Iran is the Zagros Mountains. Trump bombing an Iraqi air field fucked US/Iran diplomacy for a generation and caused every other government official in the region to take a step back from the nearest American military base. But it wasn't going to initiate a direct attack from Iran into Iraq (because they're trying to cultivate an alliance). If anything, it heightened the support Iran had for Yemen, which culminated in the closing of the Gulf of Adan to... 90%+ of traffic through the Suez? If you want to talk about something that hurt Western nations as much as losing Solemani hurt Iran... Billions, if not tens of billions of dollars, and right through the heart of Mediterranean shipping (ie, Israeli accumulated wealth) industry.
If we can assign Trump credit for that... well... god damn. Way to go, dude.
Accidental good is also good you can't count on going forward.
Biden is consistently bad on policy, while maintaining a pipeline of experienced professionals with long term job aspirations. Trump occasionally prat-falls over his own dick, while hundreds of experienced professionals in the various agencies flee the sinking ship he's created.
I see Trump as a kind-of American Boris Yeltsin. I don't think that will make America a better place, but perhaps it will allow other nations to assert themselves when the US retreats from the global stage.
This isn’t 1991 USSR. He’s not stripping copper out the US and selling it to foreigner investors.
glances at US Steel being sold to Japan
Maybe not literally. Not yet, anyway. But we're getting real close.
Trump being loud and threatening NATO allies doesn’t do anything to change reality.
It does. It kills initiatives under prior administrations. It alienates the people who have to physically pull the "Yes" lever in other countries. And, frankly, the endless "Trump is Putin's best friend! Trump is on Russia's side! Trump ❤️ Putin kissing in a tree!" agitprop is going to have some kind of effect on how people take Trump's picks for ambassadors and Sec State head when it comes time to do international diplomacy. That, plus his habit of fucking around with state secrets, means you can't be Olaf Sholtz in Germany and glad-hand the guy who everyone in your country thinks is a hand-puppet for the FSB.
The US is having trouble diplomatically because of the inherent racist and profit-driven nature of its ideology
That's not a problem with France or the UK or Germany or Japan. Not normally. But you have to tack on all the "Fifth Column!" hysteria that's been building around this campaign. How do you integrate with the Five Eyes network when your main go-betweens with the CIA and NSA are a bunch of Groypers?
Trump literlaly started a crisis with the DPRK
We'd been in and out of crisis with the DPRK all during the Obama era, thanks to their restart of nuclear testing and long range missile testing. That's in no small part thanks to Obama inheriting Bush Era Pentagon officials, rather than shitcanning them on day one.
and coup'd Bolivia
The MAS party resigned itself out of office and handed the keys to a Social Democrat. Possibly the stupidest thing a party leadership has done since Allende appointed Pinochet as General Chief of Staff of the Army. That wasn't Trump's magic fingers, it was an own-goal by Bolivian national government which the US pounced on in their moment of weakness.
he gets the most donors and the largest and most right-wing ones too
He's been far less successful at fundraising than his predecessors, in large part thanks to Citizen's United fracturing the old PAC coalitions and letting every billionaire run around doing his or her own pet project. But he's brought in a ton of new voters that guys like Romney and McCain failed to engage.
It's bipartisan for a reason
When both parties agree on something, you can be absolutely certain that its going to be dogshit.
He's really just gone head first in on the grift hasn't he?
Obama had reached a diplomatic agreement with Iran on their nuclear program
But he held the line on Iraq and even opened up fronts in Syria. If the Iranian military left itself exposed like that? Obama might be willing to take the shot, if he thought he could advance his position further in the region.
Trump was a big step backwards there, as he was on Cuba. Even with the DPRK I don't think anything substantive materialized.
Obama was trying to carrot the Cubans toward privatization after decades of stick. But he was just as invested in an eventual corporate takeover as Clinton or Carter.
Trump was a flailing putz who did everything for attention. His moves weren't strategic past the next headline.
Looking at everything reasonable in Trump's favor, he was just as bad as Obama on foreign policy.
He was worse in strategy, which made him better in consequence. He undermined international institutions and tried to grift NATO states. He made catty remarks and empty threats to look tough, without having any kind of interest in a protracted commitment to any one conflict.
A Trump mix up at the White House would force another big wave of resignations and bring in a bunch of new grifters and know nothings.
Whether that would be better or worse is forever up to debate. But it will erode US statecraft faster than a stable continuous second term.
Trump is very much a fixture of the faction that backs him.
The fixture that backs him is largely scammers and rubes, stacked one on top of the other, in an oversized shit sandwich.
Trump can glad-hand Kim Jung Un and his base will clap. He can bomb Korea and they'll clap. It's pure cult of personality.
He'll just do what his donors or base wants.
Donor focus is more a Biden thing. Trump does what he thinks will feed of popular base, and the donors follow him.
It's what really separates an insider from a populist.
I could very easily see Hilary pulling this trigger (or Obama or Bush for that matter).
If anything, I suspect Trump mismanagement of the occupation probably was what opened up diplomacy with Iran wide enough to convince Solemani that a visit was possible. The bombing (of Iraq's own airfield!) was just Trump trying to slam the door shut after the horse had left.
My city of Houston has had Democrats at national and local governments all firmly committed to dumping as much money and manpower as possible into the Republican-controlled police forces inflicting these harms upon their constituents. The current mayor is entirely in bed with the GOP police establishment. His singular claim to fame during his legislative tenure was stripping death row victims of their last meals. "Ah, but Trump will be worse" constantly overlooks the persistent harms inflicted by compliant Democrats.
I can't vote for the "good" cop either. They're both working to the same effect.