Suleimani and The New Yorker

[Asithappens 974]

The New Yorker (TNY) has issues.... Their science articles suck. Their fiction and poetry is too, I don't know, "woke", among other things (see Batuman and the "fiction factory" and some letter to the editor in the TLS some years ago), but, and this is a big but, they excel at current events, blending facts with analysis in such a way that informs, educates, and helps one decide what is important. 

How does one keep up on things after college? One way is to subscribe to high quality publications.

 

Anyway, enough of the editorializing. Here is a great article. Imo.

 

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/02/10/qassem-suleimani-and-how-nations-decide-to-kill

[Parliament 14374]

That is a fascinating article, and I don't know where to even start quoting.  You gotta read the whole works.  Opinions differ of course, and I know there are repercussions.  I'm glad we whacked that guy.

[InkaUtexas 26359]

great article. Thank you for sharing. 

[NeverMarryAStripper 22030]

I hate to interrupt with actual discussion of the article, but I did appreciate the Thunderdome reference in it.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

2 minutes ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

I hate to interrupt with actual discussion of the article, but I did appreciate the Thunderdome reference in it.

Get the hell outta here with that shit..... discuss ? The article., PFFFFFT.        This iiiiiiis SUUUUUUURLY....

[Parliament 14374]

8 minutes ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

Get the hell outta here with that shit..... discuss ? The article., PFFFFFT.        This iiiiiiis SUUUUUUURLY....

On the evening of August 1, 2008, Israeli intelligence learned that Suleiman was on the road to Tartus. In Tel Aviv, commanders put the assassination plan into action. In the darkness, several kilometres off the coast, an Israeli submarine broke the surface of the water. Six snipers and a commander disembarked and boarded a semi-submersible boat. When they reached the shore, they scattered into preplanned positions, hiding, at a distance, on either side of the terrace. Suleiman, who had a broad forehead and a heavy gray mustache, was sitting next to his wife, amid a large group of guests. Commanders in Tel Aviv watched the scene on television monitors. The snipers, with silenced rifles, fired simultaneously. “Six bullets penetrated his heart and head, three from each side,” the former Israeli official said. “His head moved forward, to one side, and then to the other side. Suddenly, there was a spray pouring out of his head, from both sides, on the table and on the floor.” His wife was unharmed. Guests recoiled and cried out in terror.

Ya think?

The messenger would be Vice Admiral Robert Harward, a Navy seal who had grown up in Tehran and spoke Farsi. In theory, his mission would be to “impress upon Suleimani the ramifications if he continued fucking with our forces” in Iraq, a former U.S. military officer said. In one White House meeting, according to the officer, General James Mattis, then the head of Central Command, deadpanned, “If Harward is not impressed, we’ll have a pistol in the toilet”—a reference to “The Godfather.” It wasn’t clear whether everyone in the room realized that he was joking. (Mattis declined to comment.)

And in doing so, purveyed his own legend.

 

Edited February 18, 2020 by Parliament

[Asithappens 974]

Isn't there some saying, apropos to Trump, like "when the legend becomes fat print the legend"?

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

1 hour ago, Parliament said:

On the evening of August 1, 2008, Israeli intelligence learned that Suleiman was on the road to Tartus. In Tel Aviv, commanders put the assassination plan into action. In the darkness, several kilometres off the coast, an Israeli submarine broke the surface of the water. Six snipers and a commander disembarked and boarded a semi-submersible boat. When they reached the shore, they scattered into preplanned positions, hiding, at a distance, on either side of the terrace. Suleiman, who had a broad forehead and a heavy gray mustache, was sitting next to his wife, amid a large group of guests. Commanders in Tel Aviv watched the scene on television monitors. The snipers, with silenced rifles, fired simultaneously. “Six bullets penetrated his heart and head, three from each side,” the former Israeli official said. “His head moved forward, to one side, and then to the other side. Suddenly, there was a spray pouring out of his head, from both sides, on the table and on the floor.” His wife was unharmed. Guests recoiled and cried out in terror.

Ya think?

The messenger would be Vice Admiral Robert Harward, a Navy seal who had grown up in Tehran and spoke Farsi. In theory, his mission would be to “impress upon Suleimani the ramifications if he continued fucking with our forces” in Iraq, a former U.S. military officer said. In one White House meeting, according to the officer, General James Mattis, then the head of Central Command, deadpanned, “If Harward is not impressed, we’ll have a pistol in the toilet”—a reference to “The Godfather.” It wasn’t clear whether everyone in the room realized that he was joking. (Mattis declined to comment.)

And in doing so, purveyed his own legend.

 

That was a solid reference by Mattis.  Fuck 'em if they didn't get it. : )

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4980]

But was it a reference to The Godfather, or a reference to Billy the Kid's escape from the Loncoln County Couthouse?

[El Diablo 4232]

It was a reference to South Austin's mom, that's one of her eloquent ways of referring to the butt seks.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

15 hours ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

But was it a reference to The Godfather, or a reference to Billy the Kid's escape from the Loncoln County Couthouse?

Well as it was an assassination joke, The Godfather I'd imagine..