Take action to start a war. Donald Trump Defends the assassination of irans top military leader but critics say the u. S. President has made the world a more dangerous place how will the killing of thousands of the money affect american troops abroad and the trigger another endless war this is inside story. Hello and welcome to the program im how am i here in the u. S. President s has long said hed pull american troops out of what he called the endless wars in the middle east but Donald Trumps critics say he may just have laid the groundwork for a new conflict funerals have been held for irans military commander qassam salami who died in a u. S. Airstrike in iraq on friday armed groups in the middle east supported by to her on a promise and revenge the u. S. Is urging americans to leave iraq immediately and ascending extra troops to the region in case of reprisal attacks and while trumps the Republican Party has praised the targeted killing of solomon e its democrats are not happy as hardy joke astral reports us President Donald Trump tried to justify his decision to order the killing of Iranian Revolutionary guard commander qassam sulaimani by claiming the sulaimani had been planning eminent and sinister attacks on americans in the region we took action last night just stop a war we did not. Take action to start a war the us president said sulaimani was responsible for the deaths of thousands of American Service people over 2 decades solid mady has been perpetrating acts of terror to destabilize the middle east for the last 20 years what the United States did yesterday should have been done long ago trumps republican allies in congress agreed for to all this evil man operated without them strike and countless and often have suffered for now his terrorist leadership has been and democrats say trump ordered the drone strike that also killed the leader of tehran back Iraqi Militia groups without Consulting Congress and warned of serious consequences this is the equivalent of the iranians assassinating the u. S. Secretary of defense i do not believe the administration has gamed out. How very badly this could go for the us and our interests this action may well have brought our nation closer to another endless war exactly the kind of endless war the president promised he would not drag us into. Iran has promised retaliation the u. S. State department issued a security alert urging all american citizens to leave iraq immediately despite the secretary of states claims on u. S. Media that americans in the region are now safer after suleyman his demise while no one is accusing President Trump of ordering fridays drone strike for political purposes and does overshadow all political headlines in the u. S. Including trumps impending impeachment trial the u. S. Senate was to begin this new year by taking on that as their 1st order of business and instead senators are preparing for briefings on the u. S. Military strike and whatever response it may bring heidi joe castro aljazeera washington. Well the u. S. Has maintained a military presence in the middle east for decades according to central commands there are at least 60000. 00 troops in 20 countries after solomon is killing the u. S. Is sending an additional 3000 to the region well iraq already has 5000 troops for when the war against i so there are still nearly 900 soldiers in syria thats despite the president saying a job or they were poor notes kuwaits is homes of more than 13000 u. S. Military personnel with an Army Headquarters 2 air and one naval bases 500 american soldiers were food to saudi arabia last year because of increased tension with iran and qatar has a huge u. S. Air base housing up to 13000 troops. Well lets bring in our guests now Hillary Mann Leverett is c. E. O. Of the Political Risk consultancy strategic and a former u. S. Diplomats she joins us from washington d. C. In london under this creek is a assistant professor and in defense studies at Kings College london and coauthor of surrogate warfare the transformation of war in the 21st century also joining us from washington is Adolfo Franco republican strategist and former adviser to senator john mccain welcome to you all will start in washington d. C. And with yourself Hillary Mann Leverett. You for its diplomats your military strategists this action taken by the trumpet ministration will have been gamed to some extent so what sort of impact do you think the u. S. Come expects from iran what sort of impacts is the u. S. Braced for well from my understanding when this has been gamed out when a war with iran is gamed out here in in washington in defense circles the United States actually does not do very well we are not able to at the end of the day really continue the split or a dominance that you would need to win a war the ability here though for the political elite to underestimate the strength of the Islamic Republic of iran goes back 40 years and my concern is that they still do not understand that going to war with iran will be going to war against the most potent adversary that we have seen since world war 2 it will be a difficult war for iran if it comes to pass i think they are ready though for this sacrifice and i think many or any ron actually think they need to do so they need to have a war with iran to get the United States out of the middle east i do not think that President Trump and his political advisers really have any real understanding of what that type of war would be what the cost would be politically and militarily to the United States as an economically the president i think was motivated largely by domestic Political Considerations ok or well him and whoever to motivations were spooked into the possibility of another benghazi ok what will come to the potential motivations perhaps later lets move on to Andreas Krieg a bit of it seems they said are you being painted there what impact do you 1st see in a guessing game though no one knows hieron is going to respond but what would. You think is the likely scenario are we heading for world war 3 no absolutely not i mean this has taken world war 3 that was going around social media yesterdays completely blown out of proportion i think this was a escalatory strike it kind of gets us to a brings us to neutral jack dri in the region particularly in iraq and its a continuation of an ongoing standoff between the United States and iran that is going back to early last year after the u. S. In a lottery withdrew from the j. C. P. R. Way this maximum Pressure Campaign is part of a type of war from an iranian point of view where you know the reins are telling you already we are at war with the United States so the whole debate of were going to war were already at war which is below the threshold of of an International Armed conflict but it is a war nonetheless and i think were going down a spiral of escalation where it is very very important right now for the United States to make sure that the response that will come from the iranians and it has to come and it will come not bound by drug refuse or time it will come at a time when we least expect it and it can take a lot of different shapes and forms and probably will be executed by sarra gets rather than directly by the Iranian Military but you know this kind of escalatory response that will come from iran has to be under a certain threshold as well it doesnt have it cant cross a certain red line because the americans dont want to respond with further escalation and i think whats important to note here is that the americans via the Swiss Embassy as well as via the countries have already tried to reach out to the iranians to tell them make sure that your response is going to be somewhat proportionate that we can actually sit down and negotiate well in terms of a proportional response we have had commentators Andreas Krieg putting out there that the equivalent of customs on the money is someone at the level of Vice President mike pence do you think this was a proportional move from the United States and if so what is the proportional response to that. No i think it was in proportion but it was deliberately not proportionate in a way that for the americans to actually draw a red line the problem is and i agree with hilary a list the trouble is tradition doesnt have a strategy it doesnt have an end goal it doesnt have the means and ways to actually see this through if you want to play this game the americans need to play this game with maximum military pressure as well that means with the political will to actually fight willing to fight a major war in the region i dont think the americans are at this stage yet but the response from the iranians would be one that can be leveraged against any u. S. Force in the region in syria and iraq in particular very vulnerable it could be a drone strike it could be kidnapping of of of u. S. Soldiers u. S. Civilians u. S. Journalists in the region and the iranians have a network that is goes beyond the mena region they can strike in Southeast Asia and south america in west africa this is where all the surrogate networks exist for the iranians and they can use these kind of attacks to respond against americans when we least when we least expect it so if a proportionate response means you know we have limit casualties u. S. Casualties but there will be u. S. Casualties because that would be the kind of proportionate response in iran its one ok Adolfo Franco lets start with in terms of the impact that the u. S. Has braced for the United States will have known that by taking out cause and so money there would have been a reaction do you think the u. S. Is well equipped to deal with that response at present well that largely depends on iran but i think we need to step back and ask how we got here and why this action was taken by the president and i would simply support the president i do think he has a game plan and the actions of band not only of the last 20 years but more most recently are obviously the most recent events the attacks on our embassy orchestrated by iran and its proxies. In iraq what a. Happened in bosnia with respect to the death of american personnel and of course the host of other things that have taken place in the region that have affected our interests and our allies and there are a lot of the list is as endless with respect to sell them on e and iran whether its syria whether its lebanon yemen attacks on saudi arabias Oil Facilities so the question is who provoked whos been provoking if you will if you want to call the United States the one of the sleeping giants if you want to use that analogy its been iran so this is the provocation has been iranian provocation and the response is appropriate here you have really a terrorist hes not the equivalent of the Vice President or the secretary of defense these are outrageous comment this is a terrorist revolutionary guard has been designated a terrorist by our government you have a terrorist arriving in baghdad to meet with his number one proxy who was also in an iraqi taken out on this and this strike to meet to plot further attacks on our embassy our personnel and probably our bases in iraq so unlike the previous president president obama there is a red line here and the red line has been crossed and this president has acted and he not only has acted in this particular case but has signaled that as you mentioned not only 3500 troops coming to iraq but probably this enters into a new phase where the United States will probably reengage to try to stabilize the situation in iraq which was rapidly deteriorating because every ronnie and interference so i think we need to put this in the context of iranian provocation and our need to respond and i think iran respects strength and it up and appreciates weaknesses and exploits it and has been for a number of years well everybody is but perhaps aargh franco that the provocation comes back to the United States with the overthrew. Of their democratically elected leader. Leaving the blame to one side we are here night we are here lets take a look at course this does this go to iran but were here now because every rainy and actions of course but thats one interpretation but does this make life in the middle east safer particularly for americans do you think that strike makes the situation for americans and their leaders a 1st. And it does for this reason with all due respect to to hillary and others is we have a choice here we either stand up to iran and send the signals that we need to send which the president did or we have a policy of frankly a weakness in appeasement and thats what was happening under the Obama Administration and i think to do drugs would older those analogies defense spending sense the the Obama Administrations treatment which a lot of the later versions its a jogger to trial is a little to say in reply to a percentage but its not just if this is just a boma president bush had the chance to take all the money as well until its not too rushed and he should have. Should have been President Trump said very clearly and here it was long overdue and it has been long overdue ok hillary Hillary Mann Leverett this was not a strategic decision taken by President Trump he is making the same mistake that is a bipartisan mistake that goes across political lines that both president bush and president obama made before him try to vilify a leader of another state whether its Saddam Hussein in iraq or Moammar Gadhafi in libya which has happened what happened under obama you vilify this leader you invade the country try to destroy the country and think you have a victory that has been proven absolutely wrong it is a strategic quagmire that has sucked in the United States into the middle east reined our resources killed our our soldiers and devastated those countries to know how was it a fact was we have a rock under president bush telling you that he had more than 100000 troops there and have never been able to stabilize it it is more antiamerican today that it ever was its more of a threat to the United States today than it was the same thing with libya that has an obama it exact same thing libya is a more of it but then i added it was because of the u. S. Military intervention hillary just its not you. Know i want to make my your final point on this issue. You might try final point on this issue is the last time that i was in beijing might one of my chinese counterparts said to me the best thing the United States can do for china today is get itself dragged into yet another strategic admire in the middle east when we invaded iraq back in 2003 that gave the chinese a quiet decade to speed up every piece of their economic and military power and look where we are today on the cusp of yet again another strategically devastating defeat for the United States. What if. Hillary if i could quickly 1st of all the last people i would take advice in terms of the formulation of American Foreign policy would be Chinese Communist diplomats but you might have a different view on that regard you are taking a quantum leap here to suggest for one moment that the United States is contemplating a war with iran i think the president has made made it clear i think iran does not want to war i dont think the United States is looking for war with iran obviously when there are tensions and matters of this complexity theres always the possibility of escalation there is a risk theres no question about that but there is not a game plan as you somewhat suggested that were now intervening interventions you mentioned i grant were probably poorly or not rightly executed and i would share your view if indeed the goal here was to invade iran and read region change in iran this is not a leader and this is a terrorist our government is not some clarify the terrorist with this person this person had his person isnt and im going to. Wait while your strategy your strategy is the ostrich Saddam Hussein was there saying youre right if i could interject here but that but this is because this is not since ordinary hopson solid body is a foreigner in iraq he said i think going to war because he is. Still an army is not a day well funerals that are under way and time. I had its time to letterheads over to the next step if i could come see you and dream reason and celebrations as well under your screed how do you see we have one point of view that the us is not going to get dragged into a war and another point of view that fears this is very much a reality do you think that there is a risk the u. S. Could get bogged down in this region or is it time to cut and run its like look the there has been a real sh