When Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austro-Hungary in Sarajevo in 1914, the Serbian nationalist had no idea that his singular act would eventually consume the world.

But sometimes assassinations do not end with the end of one life. If Princip thought that the archduke’s death would simply rid the region of Austro-Hungarian rule, he was wrong. The assassination prompted a series of political mistakes and stupid decisions. And World War I began.

By 1918, 16 million soldiers and citizens had been killed — millions dead because of the human folly that was sparked by one assassination. And no one could have thought that all that death and suffering was worth it.

“Some people just need killin’ ” is a phrase that has been used in movies and books and even criminal court to explain the killing of an especially evil person. If you believe that there is evil, that phrase sums things up in a way that most folks understand.

And that seems to be the consensus of many of our leaders regarding the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s top general and an enemy of America who was responsible for many hundreds of American deaths.

It’s hard to say that he did not deserve what he got, and it feels good to get the bad guy, but by itself that’s not enough. America is entitled to know why this was the right time to put the match to the kindling of the Middle East. And this time, Congress must step up and get the truth.

According to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, danger of an imminent attack made it necessary to kill Soleimani now. Maybe so, but so far Pompeo has been even less specific than the Bush administration was when it falsely assured us that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

And there is another terrible possibility, one that Donald Trump warned us about in 2011. As reported by The Hill last week, Trump knew then that many voters would support a president at war, in spite of any other problems they might have with his reelection.

In November 2011, Trump tweeted, “@BarackObama will attack Iran in the not too distant future because it will help him win the election.” In another tweet that month, Trump said, “In order to get elected, @BarackObama will start a war with Iran.”

There is video from around that time, posted by The Washington Post, that shows Trump saying, “Our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate. He’s weak and he’s ineffective. So the only way he figures that he’s going to get reelected — and as sure as you’re sitting there — is to start a war with Iran.”

And, according to The Hill, Trump was still warning us in late 2012, writing, “Don’t let Obama play the Iran card in order to start a war in order to get elected — be careful Republicans!”

And this is where Congress must do its duty. Now that Trump has been impeached, and as he faces reelection, we are entitled to know if his own words now apply to him.

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