War Without Reason: Despite President Trump’s declaration that four US embassies were potential targets of attacks plotted by the late Iranian Gen. Qassim Suleimani, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said yesterday that he had been shown no evidence of that before Trump gave the order to kill Suleimani.

  “I didn’t see one with regard to four embassies,” Esper said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” But, he said, “I share the president’s view that probably — my expectation was they were going to go after our embassies. The embassies are the most prominent display of American presence in a country.”

  The administration has gone from “imminent” threat to specific threat to probable threat as the justification for hitting Suleimani.

   Democrats and even some Republicans have questioned the justification and wisdom of stirring up a hornet’s nest with the Suleimani killing. Trump responded by firing verbal missiles at the Democrats over the weekend. “Where have the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats gone when they have spent the last 3 days defending the life of Qassem Soleimani?” Trump asked on Twitter. He said, Dems are “unhinged.”

  Well, somebody is unhinged. No one … no one in Congress from either party has defended the life of Suleimani, who was a renowned director of terrorism and militancy in the Middle East.  They have questioned the reason for killing him.

Under His Skin: With the articles of impeachment  likely to be delivered to the Senate this week, Trump was also on a tear about his upcoming trial. “New polling shows that the totally partisan Impeachment Hoax is going nowhere. A vast majority want the Do Nothing Democrats to move on to other things now!”

  Again, Trump invents his own facts. Only one poll — Quinnipiac — says 51 percent of Americans oppose impeachment and removing Trump from office. Hardly a vast majority. Fox News, of all outlets, has him at 50 percent for removal and Politico, 51 percent.

  As for polling saying that the impeachment is “going nowhere,” there doesn’t seem to be any polling on that because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a polling sample of one, has already said the impeachment is headed for a dead end.

  “Dismissing is a coverup,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on ABC’s “This Week.” She went on, “If they want to go that route again, the senators who are thinking now about voting for witnesses or not — they will have to be accountable for not having a fair trial.” 

Iran Unrest: Iran has had two days of violent protests following the admission by the government that its military had shot down a Ukrainian commercial airliner. Police used teargas and some live rounds.

  Eighty-two Iranians were among the 176 dead. Protesters want to know why — if there was an imminent threat of attack by the US the night of the crash — that commercial air traffic was not shut down. 

From the 50: The National Football League is down to its final four, so baseball season can’t be far off. 

  Next weekend the Tennessee Titans play Kansas City, and San Francisco goes against Green Bay, to determine which two teams go to the Super Bowl.

The Bulletin Board: The US is expelling 20 Saudi military trainees following the killing by a Saudi of three American service members at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. Some were found to have ties to extremists, and others had viewed child pornography. — The only Iranian woman to win an Olympic medal announced on Instagram that she’s defecting. Kimia Alizadeh won a bronze for taekwondo at the 2016 summer Olympics. In a letter, she described herself as “one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran.” — The Taal volcano southeast of Manila in the Philippines is erupting, snowing the area with ash and forcing evacuations.

The Sandringham Summit: Britain’s Prince Harry was expected to meet today with the Queen, his father, Prince Charles, and brother, William, who is second in line to take the throne.

  They are supposed to try to iron out some future relationship between Harry and the family. He evidently announced his big move without clearing it first with grandma, the queen in the hideous hats.

  Harry and his American wife Meghan Markle shocked the family announcing last week that they are stepping back from royal obligations to get a life of their own in North America. Harry just couldn’t see a future in cutting ribbons at new shopping malls while his wife is chased and slandered by Britain’s rabid and racist tabloid press.

  What’s also gone public is the long-reported freeze between Harry and William, who’s been quoted saying, “I’ve put my arm around my brother all our lives and I can’t do that anymore; we’re separate entities.” 

  Some reports say things might get nasty if Harry and Meghan don’t get the deal they want. Tom Bradby, a friend who made a documentary about the couple, wrote in  the Sunday Times: “I have some idea of what might be aired in a full, no-holds-barred, sit-down interview and I don’t think it would be pretty.”

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