Fmr. CIA Dir. Morell: There Will Be ‘Dead Civilian Americans’ Resulting from Soleimani Death

‘Number one, there will be dead Americans’

EXCERPT:

MORELL: “So, Anthony, here’s — here’s the balance, Qasem Soleimani was an evil genius. He had a lot of American blood on his hands. He was the mastermind behind Iranian maligned behavior in the region. The world is a better place without him. The problem is that comes at a very high cost. Number one, there will be dead Americans, dead civilian Americans as a result of this, possibly over the next few days in any place where Iran has its proxies. Iraq is the most likely place, but also Lebanon, Bahrain, other places in the Middle East. Number two, this sets a precedent, Anthony, that — that senior officials are fair game in this hybrid, not yet at war kind of scenario that we’re in with Iran, and that’s a dangerous precedent to set. Number three, this is actually going to enable the hardliners, strengthen the hardliners in Iran. As we heard earlier, Qasem Suleimani, extremely popular in Iran, and that is going to actually strengthen those people who follow him. And lastly, I think we’ve now ended any hope of keeping Iraq out of Iran’s arms. I think we’re going today the Iranian parliament vote shortly, possibly as early as today, to send American troops home. So yes, it’s good that he’s gone, but it comes at an extraordinarily high price. And that’s why the Bush administration and the Obama administration chose not to do something like this.”

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