Bernie Sanders Stands Out in Anti-War Messaging After Death of Soleimani

THESE ARE THE FACTS THAT WE NEED TO KNOW.

 

By Nicole Goodkind

President Donald Trump successfully ordered an airstrike to kill Qasem Soleimani, head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, the Pentagon confirmed late Thursday evening. Less than two hours later, the 2020 Democratic candidates for president began rolling out their own strongly worded responses. 

The statements fell neatly into two camps: Those who strongly condemned war, and those who gave more nuanced reactions. The latter group began by condemning Soleimani for his actions, then issued a warning that the Trump administration isn’t equipped to handle the situation at hand. Some of the language candidates used was strikingly similar. 

Candidates like Senator Bernie Sanders, however, responded to the escalation in Iran, which experts say will lead to retaliation and possibly warfare, by emphasizing their anti-interventionist stance.

Part of President Donald Trump's appeal to voters in 2016 were promises to bring American troops (currently fighting an 18-year war in the Middle East) back home and his framing of opponent Hillary Clinton as a war hawk. “You’re going to end up in World War Three over Syria if we listen to Hillary Clinton," he said during a 2016 press conference.

Those promises, now fraying, are still appealing to voters, and Sanders could potentially appeal to a class of American who feels betrayed by the president.

The majority of Americans disapprove of the President’s handling of foreign policy and also disapprove of war with Iran. A June Politico poll found very little support for retaliatory action in Iran after the country struck down a U.S. drone aircraft, and a February study by the Eurasia Group found that the majority of Americans wanted to end interventionary policy in the Middle East, even going so far as to say they didn’t want to intervene in Iran if the country resumed its nuclear weapons program. 

Still, the majority of 2020 candidates opted for careful words, calling for a more careful look at the situation and the intervention of Congress instead of a complete end to the ongoing conflict in Iran and repeating Republican rationalizations for the death of Soleimani.

Biden, Warren, Buttigieg, Bloomberg

Former Vice President Joe Biden said the president’s actions were akin to tossing “a stick of dynamite into a tinderbox,” but also hedged his rhetoric by acknowledging that “no American will mourn Qassem Soleimani’s passing,” and “he deserved to be brought to justice for his crimes against American troops and thousands of innocents throughout the region.”

Biden acknowledged that “we could be on the brink of a major conflict across the Middle East” and said he hoped the Trump administration had "thought through the second-and third-order consequences of the path they had chosen,” though he didn't believe they had.

Later in the day, Biden reiterated at a campaign event that he believed the prospects of direct conflict with Iran was "greater than it has ever been." but said “the question is, do Donald Trump and his administration have a strategy for what comes next?" 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) soon released her own statement, echoing that Soleimani “was a murderer, responsible for the deaths of thousands, including hundreds of Americans.” She warned that his killing could lead to a “costly war” that America should avoid. 

Warren, who voted twice to increase the military budget under President Trump and voted for sanctions on Iran, later opted for stronger words.

Please continue this article here: https://fortune.com/2020/01/03/democrats-iran-biden-sanders/