The Pentagon has confirmed that President Trump directed the airstrike at Baghdad's international airport that killed Gen. Qassim Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force.
- January 3, 2020
AceShowbiz - Donald Trump has started 2020 with a loud bang, literally. Just a day after his wife Melania Trump revealed "peace on the world" as her new year's resolution, the U.S. President might have started a war by ordering a strike in Iran on Thursday, January 2.
The airstrike at Baghdad's international airport killed Major General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran's Quds Force, a specialized unit in the Revolutionary Guards. The Pentagon later confirmed that Trump directed the strike against Soleimani.
"At the direction of the President, the U.S. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization," the Pentagon said in a statement. "General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region. This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans."
Trump has not publicly addressed the matter as he's currently staying at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, but he tweeted an American flag on late Thursday after news broke about the strike. The tweet was not accompanied by any text.
While Republicans have praised the president for taking action to deter Iranian aggression, some Democrats criticized Trump for directing the strike without congressional approval. Some people suspected that Trump ordered the strike to get reelected. "Trump starting a war at the beginning of the election year is the least surprising thing I've ever seen him do," wrote movie director Scott Derrickson.
Others, meanwhile, fear that the strike would start a World War 3 and have expressed their fear with memes, making "World War 3" one of the trending topics on Twitter along with "Iran," "WWIII" and "Trump".
"Since its World War 3 I'm going to finally listen to white people, and take my black a** back to Africa," one posted on Twitter. Another shared his worry as tweeting, "When you laughed at all them world war 3 tweets but then you end up getting drafted."
" 'YALL HAVE ME OUT HERE FIGHTING FOR THE WORLD WAR 3 WHEN I HAVEN’T FINISHED WORKING ON MY NEW ALBUM!' " a third user posted with a clear reference to Rihanna. Others, meanwhile, joked about making up reasons to excuse themselves from being drafted should a war really break.
