"They didn't think he would take it,"

The Pentagon is Trump's worst enabler 

 The Washington Post reports that Trump had long pondered killing Soleimani, but had been held in check by his first national security team, including then-Defense Secretary James Mattis, who resigned at the end of 2018. "Former White House officials who supported the killing of Soleimani this month viewed Mattis' absence as one of the reasons the strike proceeded, surmising that Mattis either wouldn't have supported such a strike or wouldn't have presented the option to the president," the Post said.

 The current team - with Esper now leading the Pentagon - had no such compunctions. When tensions started to flare with Iran at the end of 2019, Trump chose assassinating Soleimani from a list of options presented to him by "top American military officials," The New York Times reported last week. "They didn't think he would take it," the Times reported. "In the wars waged since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Pentagon officials have often offered improbable options to presidents to make other possibilities appear more palatable."

That's professional malpractice.

　極端な選択肢と穏当な選択肢 を与えて穏当な選択肢を選ばせる算段だったが、トランプは極端な選択肢を選んだ。そもそも、マティス前国防長官なら、極端な選択肢を提示しなかっただろう。その意味では、業務上過失だ、と。

　トランプの行動は予測困難だね。