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On Qassem Soleimani and War
Here are two opinions I hold at the same time:
- Qassem Soleimani was a bad person.
- War is a bad thing.
These positions are not mutually exclusive, so why is it in the rhetoric that the Republicans keep using, they are treated as though they are?
Republican after Republican is accusing Democrats of “mourning” Soleimani’s death, which is an argument as specious as it is divisive. And this is the hostile kind of rhetoric which makes it impossible to have civil discourse about things.
These are not “two sides” to the argument. They are two things that are concurrently true. So saying Soleimani was a bad person doesn’t justify war, risking war, or even the assassination itself.
I don’t mourn his death one little bit. I lament the potential effect of assassinating him. We were on the brink of another war, and are only not at war right now because of the restraint shown by Ali Khamenei.
Let’s just say that again to let it register. We were on the brink of another war, and are only not at war right now because of the restraint shown by Ali Khamenei. In a despot battle, Khamenei was the one who proved to be sane, and not the President of the United State.
