Politics is a dirty business. Blaming opponents is standard. But there comes a time when such finger-pointing is downright unpatriotic. Liberals crossed that line by trying to pin the downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet over Tehran on President Trump ā a tragedy thousands of Iranian protesters blamed on the malicious ineptitude of their own leź¦aders.
The blame-Trump talking point wasnāt limited to wacky corners of Twitter, mind you. Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) serves on the House Armed Services Committee and chairs its Military Personnel Subcommittee. So theoretically, she shouldnāt be a crazy personš. Yet she was all over cable TV blaming Trump for Iranās shoot-down of a Ukrainian passenger jet.
On Friday, Speier appeared on CNN claiming that the death of the planeās 176 passengers āemanates from the death of Soleimani. … This all started from the time the president of the United States Āreneged on the nuclear deal that we had with Iran.ā
As the song goes, Speier donāt know much about history ā specifically, the Islamic Republicās decades of Āaggression against America and the West, dating back to when āTrumpā was just the š name of a playboy pršoperty developer.
āCrossfireā was the Word of the Day among the American left to Ādescribe what had happened ā even though there literally was no fire from the US side. In fact, the night the Ukrainian jet was downed, Iran had fired on bases housinšg US forces in Iraq.
Facts notwithsštanding, CNN analyst Susan Hennessey tweeted: ā176 completely innocent lšives, killed in the crossfire of reckless escalation.ā The Washington Postās Anne Applebaum and NBCās Heidi Przybyla also tweeted ācrossfireā takes, while that paperās faux-conservative columnist, Jennifer Rubin, made excuses for Tehran: āAfter all the rhetoric from Trump and especially from [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo, I think any country would be jumpy.ā
If rhetoric makes a country ājumpyā enough to down an airplane taking off from its own airport, the proāblem is that countryās leadership, not the US president. The plane was departing, not approaching, making the Iranian Āaction quite a big oopsie.
Iranās foreign minister, Javad Zarif, cleverly played to US liberalsā biases, blaming his countryās blunder on āUS adventurism.ā Vox writerš Aaron Rupar and manyź¦ other liberals instantly parroted the line.
The leftās ārecklessā charge only applies to Trumpš«. Lefty protestą²ers raged against the presidentās ārecklessā killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Think pieces in Vox, The Washington Monthly and CNN, among others, all used the ārā-word to describe Trump targeting of this international terrorist.
But few used that same language to describe the actually reckless way Iran has behaved. Because liberals believe āTrump is bad,ā many automaticallyź¦ end up on the āIran-is-goodā side to oppose the president. Soleimani was a terź¦rorist with the blood of hundreds of Americans on his hands. He also plotted terror attacks against the US homeland: You donāt have to believe Trump ā ask the Obama administration, which accused him of that in 2011.
Yet American media were downright solemn upon his death. Grabien Media put together a montage of media personalities describing him as ābrave,ā āa war hero,ā āno ordinary general.ā CNNās Anderson Cooper compared him to Charles de Gaulle, whoš¦ led the Free French against the Nazis in World War II.
Itās hard to imagine that Soleimani would have gotten the same unseeāmly gushing praise, or Iran the liberal apologetics, had it been Teš·am Obama that had greased him.
There is a lot of room to be concerned about escalation with Iran without being insane about it. If you reach the point where youāre blaming Trump, and by extension America, for the Tehran regime Āaccidentally firš¦©ing at a passenger jet, itās long past the time to rethink. Opposing war or the Trump presidency is one thing; making excuses for a leading state sponsor of terror is quite another.
Twitter: @Karol