PRESIDENT Donald Trump and his coterie have exposed the American people and the Middle East to enormous risk by their unwise decision to provoke Iran by assassinating Iranian Maj Gen Qassem Soleimani. This has resulted in an unprecedented escalation in tensions in the now 41-year stand-off between Iran and the United States.

Many American politicians have openly criticised and condemned this act and expressed concern over Donald Trump’s foolish act of putting the lives of Americans in the region in jeopardy.

During his election campaign Trump, and even after taking office, had pledged that he would end ‘endless wars’. He had also accused his predecessors of wasting trillions of dollars on wars that could instead have been spent on improving the US. His promises were just a ruse to reach the White House. Mr President please remember: you don’t kill to stop war.

M Khalid Kamal
Doha, Qatar

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IT is surreal that in this age of social media, a powerful superpower has shamelessly violated the sovereignty of another nation and assassinated high ranking officials. The affront doesn’t stop there. The aggressor proudly took responsibility of the heinous crime and the world watched it as a silent spectator.

The world’s deafening silence has set a deadly precedent. The Iraqi prime minister has said he had refused permission to the US for the air strike targeting an official guest and a serving Iraqi commander. But the Trump administration still went ahead with the assassination plan. The United Nations and international human rights organisations did not raise a finger at the US.

Like the barbaric kingdoms of the past, where criticism of royalty and praise of opponents was severely punished, today social media forums like Facebook and Instagram are blocking in compliance with US diktat, accounts that display pictures of the slain Maj Gen Qassem Soleimani.

This is the height of double standards where the US propagates its side of the story but silences even the unofficial mediums of communication to completely blackout the other --in this case aggrieved-- party’s perspective.

Tension was further raised by the Trump regime when it threatened to freeze Iraqi reserves if Baghdad implemented the decision of its parliament to evict American troops!

This deplorable threat has been delivered publicly, and the world leaders are again silent.

Mirza Muhammad Ali Hossain
Karachi

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2020