Also trending was “Wag the Dog,” the 1997 movie that conjured up the notion of a president trying to distract from a scandal by spreading news of overseas conflict. Remarkably, that dark comedy was officially released just days before news broke about President Bill Clinton’s real-life scandal, his relationship with a White House intern. That scandal played out as the US fired missiles at Iraq and resulted in an impeachment trial in the Senate. “Wag the Dog” became a pop culture meme, and some of President Donald Trump’s critics trotted it out to question the timing of the killing of Soleimani, who commanded Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force.

It’s much more complicated. “The significance of Thursday’s US strike against Qasem Soleimani cannot be overstated because he ran Iran’s military operations across the Middle East,” Peter Bergen wrote. “Soleimani also oversaw operations against US servicemen in Iraq by Shia militias in which hundreds of American servicemen were killed following the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.” The general had “the blood of many Americans on his hands.”

Retired US Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling noted, “While the Ayatollah Ali Khameini once described Iran’s premier general as his ‘living martyr,’ most Americans — myself included — and many Iraqis, Kurds and Syrians who faced him and his forces on the battlefield will describe Soleimani as a mass murderer, a war criminal, a terrorist and a despicable demon.”