US - Iran Tensions: Trump Orders Troops To Middle East Following Killing Of Iranian General

President Trump Friday ordered thousands of troops to the Middle East, capping a week that saw the death of a U.S. contractor in Iraq, a retaliatory strike for that death that angered Iraqi officials, the storming of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and a targeted drone attack that killed the top Iranian general responsible for advancing Tehran’s interests in the Middle East, including terrorist attacks in the region.

Iranian leaders vowed revenge for the drone strike that killed Lt. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force, the arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards responsible for extraterritorial operations. U.S. officials said he was responsible for last week’s strike against U.S. troops in Iraq and the embassy siege.

Trump told reporters Soleimani should have been targeted long ago.

“His reign of terror is over,” Trump said. “Soleimani has been perpetrating acts of terror to destabilize the Middle East for 20 years. What the U.S. did yesterday [early Friday, Iraq time] should have been done long ago.”

He added: “The recent attacks including rocket strikes that killed a U.S. contractor and four others as well as the violent assault on our embassy in Baghdad” were directed by Soleimani.

Trump said the action was not taken to start a war but, rather, to stop one.

"We took action to stop a war; we did not take action to start a war," Trump said.

Soleimani was responsible for developing sophisticated explosive devices that have menaced U.S. troops in the Middle East. The devices are deployed against armored vehicles but are deadlier than traditional improvised explosive devices.

On the campaign trail, former Vice President Joe Biden, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination and was part of the decision-making process when U.S. Navy SEALS killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, said he hopes the “administration has thought through the second and third order of consequences for what they have chosen. American lives and the stability of the region are at stake.”

In a statement Thursday night, Biden said no American “will mourn Qassem Soleimani’s passing. He deserved to be brought to justice for his crimes against American troops and thousands of innocents throughout the region.”

He said, however, killing him escalates tensions in the region and warned the attack could come back to haunt the U.S.

“President Trump just tossed a stick of dynamite into a tinderbox, and he owes the American people an explanation of the strategy and plan to keep safe our troops and embassy personnel, our people and our interests, both here at home and abroad, and our partners throughout the region and beyond,” Biden said, acknowledging he was not privy to the intelligence that led to the decision.

Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg criticized the administration for not consulting with Congress and U.S. allies before taking action and warned danger to American citizens had been increased.

“This must not be the start of another endless war. We must act wisely and deliberately, not capriciously or through Twitter,” Buttigieg, a former intelligence officer in Afghanistan, said in a press release, taking a swipe at Trump’s favorite method of communication.

Trump said Soleimani was not the revered figure Iranian leaders are painting him. Trump said he was responsible for the deaths of numerous protesters in Iran as well as the killing or maiming of thousands of Americans “and was plotting to kill many, many more, but got caught!”

The Washington Post and New York Times reported 3,500 to 4,000 troops, members of the 82nd Airborne Division, were being dispatched from Fort Bragg, N.C., to Kuwait, joining 750 who arrived Thursday, to shore up security in the region.

“U.S. leaders have repeatedly warned the Iranians and their [Shiite] militia proxies against further provocative actions,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in a statement late Thursday.

He added: “We will not accept continued attacks against our personnel and forces in the region. Attacks against us will be met with responses in the time, manner, and place of our choosing. We urge the Iranian regime to end their malign activities.”

The Pentagon said the strike was ordered because Soleimani “was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region,” adding, “This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans.”

The action, however, may have the opposite effect.

Both Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khameini and President Hassan Rouhani vowed to avenge Soleimeini’s death, but it was unclear what form that vengeance would take.

New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio said New York could be under threat.

“We have never confronted in recent decades the reality of a war with a government of a large country with an international terror network at its behest,” DeBlasio told a news conference. “No one has to be reminded that New York City is the No. 1 terror target in the United States.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned Secretary of State Mike Pompeo the action was illegal and threatens regional stability.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Lavrov faulted the U.S. for going after an official of another U.N. member and committing the killing in yet a third country.

“Moscow urges Washington to abandon the illegal power methods to achieve its goals in the international arena and solve any problems at the negotiating table,” the Foreign Ministry said.