Trump’s “imminent threat”

White House memo reveals dangerous decision making in killing of Iranian General

Baylynne Brunetti / Contributor / The USD Vista

On Jan. 2, 2020, President Donald J. Trump ordered the U.S. Armed Forces to conduct an airstrike in Iraq which resulted in the killing of Major General Qassem Soleimani. Soleimani was the leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force, an arm of the Iranian military designated as a foreign terrorist group by the U.S. Department of State. On Friday, the House Foreign Affairs Committee released a legally mandated, two-page unclassified White House memo stating the reasons for the ordered assassination of Soleimani. This memo showed the American people that Trump illegally assassinated Major General Qassem Soleimani. 

Following its release, New York Democrat Eliot Engel, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, stated his take on the implications of the memo. 

“This official report directly contradicts the president’s false assertion that he attacked Iran to prevent an imminent attack against United States personnel and embassies,” Engel said. “The administration’s explanation in this report makes no mention of any imminent threat and shows that the justification the president offered to the American people was false, plain and simple.”

In order for the ordered assassination to be legal under the Constitution and Congressional War Powers Act, the Trump administration had the burden of proving there was an imminent threat that required them to strike in less time than it would take to get Congressional approval. The Trump administration had previously stated that there was a threat so imminent and top secret, that not even Congress could know about it. At least, that was the story President Trump told in a press conference at Mar-a-Lago following the airstrike. The official military justification, provided to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs as required by law, makes no attempt to substantiate the president’s claims of imminence. 

In the memo, the White House claimed that Trump had the power to order the airstrike under the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) in Iraq. The Trump administration’s assertion that the 2002 Iraq AUMF now authorizes force against “threats to, or stemming from, Iraq” is problematic and contrary to what Congress intended.  Congress passed the 2002 Iraq AUMF to authorize the war against Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. It permitted the president to use the armed forces as “necessary and appropriate” to “defend U.S. national security against the continuing threat posed by Iraq” and to “enforce all relevant Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq.” The AUMF was created for the reasons stated above, not to be abused by the current administration to bypass congressional approval. 

No one is sitting here saying Soleimani was a great man. But, the precedent that was set by taking out a public military figure on official business of a legitimate state is extremely dangerous. Not to mention, the White House responded to the threat of Iranian retaliation  with threats to bomb sites important to the culture of Shia muslims, who make up 90% of Iran’s population. The bombing of such sites would be a violation of the Geneva Convention and the Hague Convention, which would classify those strikes as war crimes. 

The repercussions of this administration’s handling of the Solemani assassination will be felt for years to come as new precedent is laid out and a very distinct line is drawn in the sand. There is a reason why Congress has the power to declare war. Having a temperamental man with volatile Twitter fingers in the Oval Office is dangerous to not only our foreign policy, but our national security. With the memo showing there was no imminent threat, we have started seeing what too much executive power looks like. This time, we could find ourselves at the brink of war. That is how serious the ramifications of Trump’s actions could be.