By Roger C. Kostmayer

America and the world community both have a stake in understanding precisely the how, why and when of the killing of Iranian General Soleiman by President Trump’s order.  The three questions that must be answered are: Was it legal under US and international law?; Was this decision the right thing to do to for America’s national security? If the answers to the first two questions are “Yes”, was this strategy executed effectively in America’s best interests?

The legality question requires “preemptive action” to have a clear, comparable and imminent threat – which is what the President claimed when he said four US embassies were in imminent danger from Gen. Soleiman.  Senior embassy security officials now say they were unaware of any such threat and, secondly, the President authorized the killing 7 MONTHS before the act took place. The explanation is clearly a lie, and there was no specific imminent threat that would have been avoided by killing this Iranian adversary.

Even if there had been a clear and imminent threat, would killing this senior government official have prevented it? No.  And are America, our diplomats and troops, and US civilians all safer today? Clearly not.

Was the President following a rigorously debated and thoughtful strategy that would enhance US security?  Meaning, was this unprecedented peacetime decision based on an international coalition with our allies, and was it discussed with the people’s representatives?  No.

So, based on lies, it seems this action was illegal, harmful to US security and was terrifyingly inept.

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