Dear Reader (and those interested in advertising the Sussex Royal brand on my podcast),

So at The Dispatch—up and fully running for three days now—we talk a lot about being fact-driven and opposed to hot takes, click bait, and conspiracy mongering. 

Three days of that is probably enough. So, here’s a completely unsubstantiated, unverified, and probably unlikely theory inspired in part from some chatter I heard at my cigar shop.

Suleimani was set up by the Iranians. He was too much of a hot head, growing his own power base independent of the mullahs and making it harder for Iran to get out from underneath sanctions. The Iranian leadership couldn’t stop him from conducting a series of dangerously provocative terror attacks, so they basically gave him to the Americans in exchange for … something. I’m not sure what, but maybe withdrawal from Iraq.