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”.

Every year, the Eurasia Group, a political risk management and consulting group, issues its report on the top ten global risks of international crisis.  This year’s report is profoundly disturbing, especially the largest risk it identifies.  Who is it? Is it Iran? Saudi Arabia? Russia?  Nope.  It’s the US and its broken political system.  Before we talk about this, let’s look at all ten:

1. Delegitimizing of our elections in US.
2. The decoupling of US and China technology cooperation.
3. US/China relations.
4. Multi-National Corporations in conflict with emerging nation/states.
5. Upheaval in India as social policies are causing economic downturns
6. Geopolitical influence of Europe as pushes back against the US and China.
7. Politics vs economics in climate change.
8. US policies toward Shia led nations.
9. Discontent in Latin America.
10. Turkey – pretty much everything.

These risks are all disturbing and obvious to geopolitical observers, but the first risk is scary in that it recognizes the shambles our own political system is in.  It talks about how Trump is greatly worsening the situation through his immoral and illegal behavior, but expresses great concern that he has already delegitimized the 2020 election by claiming that if he loses it’s because the election was “rigged”.  If he wins, the majority of Americans will believe it was rigged the other way (with the help of the Republicans and the Russians) and many won’t accept the result.  It is a lose-lose situation, and with Republicans enabling and protecting Trump, the crisis is unavoidable, especially since they’ll acquit him in the Senate trial emboldening him more if that’s even possible.  I mean, after all, he’s now announced that the only way he’s going to communicate with Congress is through Twitter.  Jesus.

None of this will end well, even in the remote chance that by some miracle he’s removed from office.

So, let’s recap the week:

1. Trump, against all advice, unilaterally had the second most powerful person in the Iranian government killed by drone in Baghdad.  Seven others were killed along with him.
2. Trump informed Lindsey Graham before the attack, but apparently no one else.  After the attack he spoke only to Republicans and only now is congressional leadership being briefed.
3. Evidence to justify the killings has been described by congressional sources has been described as “razor thin”.
4. Trump has continued to threaten Iran with acts of massive destruction if they retaliate (via Twitter).
5. The Iraqi Parliament has voted to expel all US troops from the country.  The vote was taken at the request of Iraqi prime minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi.  He’s sure to sign it.
6. Today, Iran announced that it is now withdrawing from the nuclear treaty of 2015 and will begin enriching uranium immediately.
7. Pompeo was on all the news programs this morning freely lying and defending the indefensible.
8. Pence lied on Twitter yesterday that Soleimani was involved in 9/11, trying to give cover to Trump.
9. Trump played golf today.

Our government is run by an incompetent, totally corrupt moron who’s being enabled by lying radicals.  It will take decades to recover from this cancer on our republic.

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.

The NY Times published an explosive report yesterday tying the facts in the Ukrainian scandal together through thousands of pages of testimony and documents and from interviews with dozens of former and current administration officials.  In short, the story tells us that knowledge and assistance of Trump’s effort to extort Ukraine to announce a sham investigation of the Biden’s was much broader and deeper than anyone to this point has been willing to admit.  Also, it shows that alarm of career staffers to Trump’s and Rudy’s plan was high and ongoing.  This report really should be Trump’s Oh Shit moment.

As evidence piles up confirming everything and more that the whistleblower reported it’s becoming more and more important that the media keep Trump’s and his enablers’ feet to the fire, especially Mitch McConnell.  As Greg Sargent said in the Washington Post this morning, it is critical that the media stop equivocating and saying that this is just another political standoff and call what the Republicans are doing what it really is…obstruction and a cover up of corruption and criminal activity by Trump.

And that’s not the only thing they should be reporting; they should be reporting and amplifying EVERY crime Trump commits and every time he violates his oath of office.  And I don’t mean adding to the list of thousand of lies he’s told, but reporting them on the front page in a continuous stream.  Like the speech Bolton gave last month at a Morgan Stanley client conference where he admitted that Trump made national security decisions simply to benefit himself, especially in Turkey where he walked away from the Kurds to protect his hotels in Istanbul from Erdogan’s retaliation.  That’s goddam blackmail, and Trump is vulnerable to that from every country where he has properties and where he’s beholding, like Russia.

Sargent goes on to say that Trump is blocking the very people who were active in, and had direct knowledge of, the very wrongdoing for which he is being impeached and the risk for blowback when hard evidence comes out later (and it will).  So, if McConnell succeeds in holding a sham trial, calling no witnesses, and acquitting Trump, the stink will be on him and every other enabler who aided in the coverup.  The courts and federal agencies will eventually force the evidence out; that is a certainty, and could lead to a second impeachment if Trump wins the 2020 election when hopefully the House and Senate would be in Democratic hands.

I’ll be popping popcorn for that.