4 reasons to beware Trump's decision to kill Soleimani

This could spiral out of control

President Trump.

Did President Trump just start a shooting war between the United States and Iran? As of Thursday night, it appears so — and if that's the case, it seems unlikely he is prepared for the ramifications.

The Pentagon on Thursday night confirmed the United States was behind the assassination of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps, at the Baghdad International Airport. Soleimani has plenty of blood on his hands — a 2013 New Yorker profile depicted his career of "assassinating rivals, arming allies, and, for most of a decade, directing a network of militant groups that killed hundreds of Americans in Iraq" — and his death came at a time of rising tension between the U.S. and Iran that had culminated in recent days with the death of an American contractor in an attack by Iranian-backed militias, a retaliatory American strike that killed dozens of those militants, and finally protesters attacking the American embassy in Iraq.

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Joel Mathis, The Week US

Joel Mathis is a freelance writer who has spent nine years as a syndicated columnist, co-writing the RedBlueAmerica column as the liberal half of a point-counterpoint duo. His work also regularly appears in National Geographic, The Kansas City Star and Heatmap News. His awards include best online commentary at the Online News Association and (twice) at the City and Regional Magazine Association.