Garry Kasparov, chess grandmaster and founder of the Renew Democracy Initiative, is no fan of President Trump, but that doesn’t make him an apologist for Qasem Soleimani and the mullahs in Iran. While at one extreme we have actresses like Rose McGowan “humbly apologizing” for the U.S. disrespecting Iran, there are voices of reason out there, and Kasparov is one of them.
What is happening between the US and Iran is a consequence of what I describe in Winter Is Coming: an aggressive dictatorship's sense of impunity leading to the crossing of one line too far.
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) January 4, 2020
Note to liberals: by “aggressive dictatorship,” he’s talking about Iran, not the U.S. under Trump.
Deterrence is based on standing up against small aggressions in order to prevent big ones, when the price will be much higher. Many years of success led Iran & Soleimani to feel invincible, to attack a US embassy, when of course a US president had to respond.
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) January 4, 2020
cc: @BarackObama
This is how appeasement kills. This is why inaction can be a deadly choice. It raises the stakes, postpones the inevitable, and encourages aggressors to assume they can act with impunity until the eventual response is massive and destabilizing.
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) January 4, 2020
Action has clear costs because it is the reality of the road taken, making it politically unattractive. Inaction hopes to pass the dire consequences and blame to a successor, as has happened with Syria and Iran.
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) January 4, 2020
I wish Trump had a competent team capable of strategic planning and of inspiring the trust of allies and the fear of enemies. That is far from the case. But I can't criticize the killing of a mass-murdering terrorist mastermind & reminding his ilk that they are not safe.
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) January 4, 2020
We'll never know how many more innocents Qasem Soleimani would have murdered or how many hundreds of thousands more refugees he'd have helped create. But don't pretend you know that what is to come is worse than the world with such a person in it.
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) January 4, 2020
Well said.
What line did they cross here?
— theoak111 (@therealoak111) January 4, 2020
How about attacking the US embassy in Baghdad? Shooting down an American drone? Attacking Saudi oil installations? Killing 1500 Iranian citizens who peacefully protest for democracy and human rights?
— Thomas Winther (@_thomas_winther) January 4, 2020
Iran did this to themselves.
— SmugglersCantina #ReleasetheAbramscut ? ? (@SmugglersCanti1) January 4, 2020
They’ve gone unchecked for decades, it was bound to happen
— M G (@Engerlandm8) January 4, 2020
I think you're right. The mad mullahs of Iran sending one of their highest-ranking generals to another nation to lead attacks against the United States embassy was crossing one line too many.
And they paid for it.
And might pay for it some more.— Jack H (@QPhysics137) January 4, 2020
Absolutely correct sir! There has been too many years of appeasement in the hope that the problem will just go away. Sometimes a strong statement has to be made in order to keep the balance.
— Neal Austin (@NA1371Marine) January 4, 2020
Perfect explanation of why the broken window theory works in any situation.
— Swappin Yarns (@Kennywooder) January 4, 2020
"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." — Admiral Yamamoto, as dramatized by the film Tora, Tora, Tora
— AgainstTrumpDude (@TheAmishDude) January 4, 2020
The best take yet.
— mark jager (@markjager11) January 4, 2020
Finally! A thoroughly astute series of tweets from you.
— ʟɛօռ (@LeonGoudikian) January 4, 2020
This is going to annoy all your new friends. Mostly because they are dummies.
Food for thought…
— spongeworthy (@spongeworthy2) January 4, 2020
Related:
‘Checkmate’! Garry Kasparov has a reminder for millennials polled who approve of communism https://t.co/KLyanpKNVb
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) January 1, 2020
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