In its best imitation of Emily Litella, the Defense Department inflicted whiplash on millions of Americans by releasing a letter to the Iraqi government that US and coalition forces were repositioning in preparation of withdrawing from Iraq.  Amidst the uproar that followed, defense secretary Mark Esper held a news conference to claim the letter was “an honest mistake”.  An “honest mistake”?  Oh, please.  This letter could only be one of three things:

1. Gross incompetence under Trump’s fake presidency.
2. A trial balloon to gauge public response to withdrawal.
3. Sabotage by someone high up in the defense department.

In the old days, way back in 2016 and before, official government communications were carefully vetted, going through many layers of approval before being issued.  Even then things weren’t perfectly communicated (like the explanations of the Benghazi attack), but mistakes were kept to a minimum.  Under Trump there is apparently so much chaos that it seems just anyone can turn the US government on its head with an unapproved (or completely botched) official communication.

Geez.

In a letter to the Iraqi prime minister today, Marine Corps Brigadier General William H. Seely III, the commanding general of Task Force Iraq, announced that “in deference to the sovereignty of the Republic of Iraq,” US and coalition troops will withdraw from the country.  So, in the last month, Trump has turned Syria over to Turkey, who immediately murdered hundreds of our Kurdish allies, then killed the military leader of Iran.  Subsequently, Iran announced it was withdrawing from the multi country nuclear treaty and that it was restarting its full scale uranium enrichment program.  Then, Trump threatened to bomb cultural sites in Iran.  THEN, Iraq ordered US troops out of the country to which we just agreed.  Oh, and Chevron has announced it is withdrawing ALL expatriates out of the country immediately.  Most other companies have already done that.

So, through Trump’s bungling, Iran has greatly increased its influence over this region of the Middle East, making Iraq basically a satellite of their own country.  Without coalition forces on the ground anywhere in the Kurdish areas of norther Iraq and Syria, Trump has opened the entire region to expansion by ISIS and other Islamic extremists.

So much “winning”.

Iraqi parliament has voted to order US troops out of Iraq.  Trump has single handedly, and stupidly escalated violence in the Middle East.  More later.

In a pre-dawn raid, the US just conducted a missile strike at the airport in Baghdad that killed General Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds force and the head of the Iraqi militia, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.  Internatonal crude prices are up sharply in the last hour on rumors of war with Iran.

Strap in.  Trump’s trying to start a war with Iran to distract from his problems at home.