“‘The whole question of are we leaving Iraq or not speaks to absence of a normal, rigorous [National Security Council] co-ordination process [and] lack of any consideration of the second or third order effects,’ said Michèle Flournoy, a former senior Pentagon official under Barack Obama, now at WestExec, an advisory firm in Washington...” Read the full article here: Full Article
"Michèle A. Flournoy, a former under secretary of defense under President Barack Obama who turned down a chance to serve as deputy defense secretary for Mr. Trump, said the chaotic nature of the current foreign policy stemmed from an 'impulsive, inconsistent' president without a functional national security process that would ensure that 'second- and third-order consequences' were fully considered. "There is 'no real strategy or shared framework,' she said, 'so tactical decisions are made in a vacuum or untethered from broader [...]
"Marco Werman spoke with Michèle Flournoy, former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, to understand the details of the decision-making process that lead to Soleimani's death..." Read the full transcript here: Full Transcript
“'I think the threat to Americans in the region, the threat to our national security, is substantially higher today than it was before the attack,' former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michèle Flournoy says about the Soleimani killing..." Watch the full interview here: Full Interview
"The EU’s decision would be important particularly amid diverging policies between Europe and the U.S., said Elizabeth Rosenberg, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. The U.S. and EU previously coordinated sanctions lists and worked together to reach the 2015 nuclear deal. However, their sanctions strategies are no longer in alignment since President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Iran nuclear pact in 2018. “'It’s different this time,' said Ms. Rosenberg, who previously advised on Iran sanctions [...]
"Qasem Soleimani was pure evil. He had the blood of innocents the world over on his hands, including hundreds of our troops due to a murderous campaign of improvised explosive devices that he masterminded during the Iraq War. A terrorist mastermind is dead, and for that we should be grateful. "But whether we are safer is just one of the many questions unleashed in the wake of Friday’s drone strike at the Baghdad airport, along with profound implications for the security [...]
"The killing of Qassem Soleimani is surely a game-changer. He was the mastermind of Iran’s policies in the region, and perhaps the second most powerful figure in the Iranian hierarchy. "He developed and shaped Shia militias as tools of Iranian coercion, leverage and intimidation in the Middle East. He trained, financed, armed and helped guide their operations — and they, in turn, enabled Iran to extend its influence at minimal cost. His successes permitted Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, to refer [...]
"I think we're right now in a situation that unfortunately seems to be spiraling and there's no real clear offramp. In terms of the explanations thus far, I think what we've seen is a series of mixed messages. And it's very, very important that the administration brief, on a bipartisan basis, Congress about what did lead to the attack. "Let's be clear. I'm not mourning, nobody should be mourning, quite frankly, Qasem Soleimani. The man was pure evil. He has the [...]
"Now, 'the trend lines point toward increasing authoritarian consolidation, a stronger Nicolas Maduro and a more fragmented opposition,' said Michael Camilleri, who served in the State Department and the National Security Council during the Obama administration. 'Those in the opposition who had deluded themselves into thinking Trump was going to invade and solve all their problems are coming to the realization that’s not going to happen.' "In a sense, the status quo works for Trump politically..." Read the full article here: [...]
"The [assassination] ban arose in response to covert CIA plots to, for example, kill Fidel Castro with an exploding cigar during peacetime—essentially, attempting to kill because of political differences, not in wartime self-defense, said Matthew Waxman, who directs the National Security Law Program at Columbia University and served in the Bush administration. The Obama administration used the term targeted killing for strikes on terrorist leaders in overseas battlefields—arguing that they fell under a right to self-defense in an ongoing war against [...]