New York mayor Bill de Blasio warned the city that attempted terrorist attacks may follow the US strike on Iranian commander Soleimani, anticipating never-before-seen threats would be unleashed – but told citizens not to panic.
After the strike on Baghdad airport “we are dealing with a different reality,” de Blasio told a press conference on Friday, admitting that “none of us know how this will play out,” as it has been decades since the US confronted “the reality of a war with the government of a large country with an international terror network at its behest.” Previous terror attacks on New York, he pointed out, came from “non-state actors” without Iran’s resources.
Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said key New York City sites will get increased security after U.S. drone strike.
“No one has to be reminded that New York City is the number one terror target in the United States” pic.twitter.com/ZkX9IImMVV
Warning New Yorkers to maintain “constant vigilance,” he explained that it was “probably unlikely” that anything would happen in the near future, but “my fear is not just about the immediate term – it’s about what happens in the months and even years ahead.”
No one has to be reminded that New York is the number-one terror target in the United States.
Stressing his “absolute confidence” in the New York Police Department – with whom he has clashed on numerous occasions – he nevertheless insisted “there will not be a moment where we let down our guard, particularly where the possibility of hostilities with such a dangerous adversary exist.”
Of course, just because the city might be besieged by frighteningly well-equipped government-backed “terrorists” doesn’t mean New Yorkers should change their routines. Citizens should “continue to go about our lives, unafraid, unaware, always realistic, tough,” de Blasio advised after he had suitably terrified his audience.
Representatives from the NYPD admitted there are “no specific credible threats,” but pledged to “monitor the threat stream,” and advised New Yorkers that “uniformed officers, many with long guns” would be stationed in “sensitive areas.”
The mayor said he was personally glad that Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s beloved military commander, was dead. But, he added, “we have to assume that this action puts us in a de facto state of war, and that can only be done under the laws of the Constitution.”
“We should not go to war with Iran – it’s extremely dangerous for the American people,” de Blasio said.
While Trump has yet to beg Congress for the green-light to go to war, he has merely followed in the footsteps of Barack Obama, who stretched a 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force that gave the military carte blanche to chase “Al-Qaeda” into any country to justify his own Middle Eastern adventures.
Curiously, Trump himself has repeatedly said that it was time to end the “endless wars” in the region – something even de Blasio seems to agree with him on, saying that “I think the American people have sent a message in election after election that we want to end all these wars.”
