Sunday School Extra Credit 1/5/20

This week's Extra Credit is the all-Pompeo edition, as the Secretary of  State made appearances in all of the five main classrooms. Because similar questions were asked in all classrooms, I'm just providing some of the many comment Pompeo made.

Each of the quotes is a standalone item, ostensibly in response to a question but many just to get the message out regardless of what was asked. I've italicized a few things for you, the reason for which will be clear by the end of the post.

Let's start with This Week.

We took him off the playing field... president Trump made the right decision to stop Qassem Soleimani from the terror campaign that he's been engaged in Against America, not only five years ago and 10 years ago, but on December 27th when an America was killed...the world is a safer place. We are taking the actions that we need to take to protect American interests, not only in Baghdad and in Iraq but throughout the region.

The intelligence assessment made clear that no action, allowing Soleimani to continue his plotting, his planning, his terror campaign, created more risks than taking the action that we took last week. We reduced risks.

This - this is a regime that has been acting against American for an awfully long time. And we are suffering from eight years of neglect and we're trying to push it back. We're trying to contain them.... We're trying to correct for what was the Obama administration's appeasement of Iran. And we have to - we have to do that. We have to continue to do that, or Americans will be less safe. 

...we're working diligently to execute our strategy to convince the Iranian regime to act like a normal nation. The Iranian people are demanding it. We are supporting it and we will be successful. 

And from Meet the Press:

We could see that he was continuing down this path, that there were in fact plots that he was working on that were aimed directly at significant harm to American interests throughout the region, not just in Iraq. 

We suffered from eight years of Iranian support from America. We gave them billions of dollars. We gave them resources. We allowed countries to trade with them, to build up there economies. What we are now having to correct for is the enormous economic activity that took place during this Iranian nuclear deal that President Trump rightly got out of in May 2018. It's taken a little bit of time, and it will continue to take time, but we are going to restore deterrence. We just had a big hill to climb up, Chuck. We've seen hundreds of thousands of people killed in Syria. Millions have to depart the region. We've seen...all of these terrorist organizations, the Shi'a militias, the Shi'a militias that we are now challenged to push back against today, all underwritten by American policy during the Obama administration....

We want the regime to change its behavior. And ultimately, the leadership in Iran will be determined by the Iranian people. We saw the protest. I am confident we will continue to see protests. They weren't protesting against America. They weren't protesting saying, "Death to America." They were demanding that the Iranian leadership behave in a way that takes care of the Iranian people. 

Now, from State of the Union:

...we're trying to restore deterrence that, frankly, is a need that results directly from the fact that the previous administration left us in a terrible place with respect to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Team Obama appeased Iran, and it led to Shia militias with money, Hams, the PIJ, hundreds of thousands of Syrians killed by Soleimani himself. 

We - we have provided them clear guidance about what it is we have as an expectation. We have worked with them. We tried to have conversations with them. It is important that they understand that American will no longer behave the way it did during the Obama-Biden administration. We will no longer appease. We will no longer tolerate. 

There are clearly actors that go beyond Soleimani. We're still doing the work we're doing. And that's why we're still preparing. That's why we're still flowing forces to the region. That's why we're doing all the things we're doing, building our our coalition, making sure our partners are defending our embassies and diplomatic facilities and military installations all throughout the region. 

We are setting the conditions for a successful and safe America, prosperous American at home, secure America abroad.  

And from Face The Nation:

We've been under threat from the Islamic Republic of Iran since at least 2015 when the previous administration made the mistake of entering that horrific nuclear deal and gave money and resources to this regime.

To take a terrorist off the battlefield does not increase the risk of terror. The risk of terror is increased by appeasement. That's what the Obama - Obama-Biden administration did. It's what president Trump will never do, Margaret. 

The instability they have created for our ally Israel, for our partners, the Saudis, our friends, the Emiratis, all of these countries, Soleimani and his band of Merry Brothers have been a negative influence in the region for an awfully long time.

We understand the obligation to share with the American people why it is we're taking the actions we can and we will do so. (p)resident Trump has done so in tweets. I've done so in messages. I'm sitting here with you today articulating why it is in America's best interest, the action we took. 

There - there remains enormous sets of risks in the region and America's preparing for each and every one of them. That includes not only the threats from the proxy militias in Iraq, but in the region more broadly along every victor, including cyber.

And finally from Fox News Sunday:

We are confident that the Iraqi people want the United States to continue to be there to fight the counter-terror campaign. And we'll continue to do all the things we need to do to keep America safe. 

So, we'll have to take a look at what we do when the Iraqi leadership and government makes a decision, but the American people should know we'll make the right decision. We will take actions that, frankly, the previous administration refused to take to do just that. 

Well, Chris, the American people know that there's a strategy. There's a strategy that has been several years in the making now, that we've been working on. It's been a diplomatic strategy. It's been an economic strategy. You're now seeing elements of the military strategy...We made clear that this cost would be brought home to them, to the leadership regime in Iran, and that we would raise costs. We wouldn't just attack their asymmetric efforts, we would response in a way that imposes costs on the decision-makers who are putting American lives at risk. 

Remember where we came in. In 2015, the Obama-Biden administration essentially handed power to the Iranian leadership and acted as a quasi-ally of theirs, by underwriting them -- underwriting the very malicious - that killed Americans.

Endless wars are the direct result of weakness, and president Trump will never let that happen. We're going to get it right. We're going to get the force posture right. We're going to get our facilities as hardened as we can possibly get them, to defend against what Iran may potentially do. 

The Obama administration created enormous risks to the American people in Iran. This administration is working to reduce that risk. 

Here's my take on all of this:

• The question on whether there was, or still is, any imminent threat to America or Americans beyond the risk that exists on any given day was asked, in some way or another (even multiple times in multiple ways), and it was never answered.
• The number of times Pompeo managed to work in references to the Obama administration was breathtaking. It seemed he was trying to make the point that us attacking another country's leader was the fault of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, not a conscientious decision on the part of the current administration.
• That point is noteworthy because, at the same time they're having us believe that every action taken is a direct result of 'appeasement' on the part of the previous Administration, they are telling us that Soleimani has been a threat to America, Americans, and our interests for decades - plural. After all, Soleimani had been in charge of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's Quds force since the late 1990's. But, of course, nothing bad happened before November 2008, as we know.

I'm trying to be less cynical in 2020 - and this classroom experience seems designed to be an early test of my intention.

See you around campus.