Not soon after another year had just started on Thursday,President Donald Trump ordered the Joint Special Operations Command of the U.S. to assasinate a leading member of the Iranian state and military Qassem Soleimani and another militia commander inside Iraq with a targeted drone missile strike at the Baghdad Airport.
Trump, in a signal he can do whatever he wants in the world, posted a U.S. flag in a tweet.
"Iran
never won a war, but never lost a negotiation!" Trump first tweeted
Friday morning, although it was not immediately clear what the president
meant by the statement.
In
follow-up tweets later in the morning, Trump said Soleimani was
responsible for numerous deaths, including of thousands of Americans,
and that he "was both hated and feared within the country."
"General
Qassem Soleimani has killed or badly wounded thousands of Americans
over an extended period of time, and was plotting to kill many more ...
but got caught! He was directly and indirectly responsible for the death
of millions of people, including the recent large number .... of
PROTESTERS killed in Iran itself," Trump tweeted.
"While Iran will never be able to properly
admit it, Soleimani was both hated and feared within the country. They
are not nearly as saddened as the leaders will let the outside world
believe. He should have been taken out many years ago!"
Trump
later followed up with another tweet saying that the Iraqi people
"don’t want to be dominated & controlled by Iran" and noting the
vast amount of money the U.S. has spent on the country.
"Over
the last 15 years, Iran has gained more ... and more control over Iraq,
and the people of Iraq are not happy with that. It will never end
well!"
The US tried to justify its actions as necessary to protect US personnel , but in reality, this act blatantly violated international law. The US dos not have the authority to murder a General of a country they are not at war with. .Iran has declared that it will retaliate after a three day period of mourning,
Iran's Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Forcea figure was considered by many be the second-most powerful person in the Iranian government behind supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and recent polling showed that Soleimani was the most popular Iranian public figure, with 8 in 10 Iranians having favorable views of him, according to a public opinion study published by the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland in October.
The US tried to justify its actions as necessary to protect US personnel , but in reality, this act blatantly violated international law. The US dos not have the authority to murder a General of a country they are not at war with. .Iran has declared that it will retaliate after a three day period of mourning,
Iran's Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Forcea figure was considered by many be the second-most powerful person in the Iranian government behind supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and recent polling showed that Soleimani was the most popular Iranian public figure, with 8 in 10 Iranians having favorable views of him, according to a public opinion study published by the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland in October.
Since this incident Democratic leaders in Congress have criticized Trump's decision. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said late Thursday night that the bombing was carried out without "authorization for use of military force" or consultation with Congress and called on the administration to immediately brief lawmakers on the next steps under consideration.
Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council
(NIAC), also issued a grave warning. "The last thing the world needs is
yet another disastrous American military adventure in the Middle East,"
said Abdi in a statement. "The assassination of IRGC Quds Force
Commander Qassem Soleimani is a profoundly reckless move that will be
viewed as an act of war in Tehran.""Iran is a nation of 80 million innocent people," added Abdi, "most of whom do not want war and oppose the actions of their own government. Similarly, Iraq is a nation of 38 million who deserve peace after lives filled with war. And the American people have seen enough of wars in the Middle East that have no end, only new beginnings. Yet many thousands of innocents in each country will be the victims of a conflict that will be difficult to confine within any one nation's borders."
The Stop the War Coalition is asking all its members and supporters to step up up organsing now against the threat of war on Iran
In a statement by Lindsey German it says :- The assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani is an act of war by Donald Trump. The act was carried out in Baghdad, violating all agreements with the Iraqi government. Both Iran and Iraq will retaliate. Trump has been heading for war since tearing up the nuclear deal with Iran and if he succeeds will create a bigger war than we have seen in the Middle East. It will draw in major players across the region including Israel, Saudi Arabia and possibly Russia.
This is the bloody result of two decades of war started by the US after 9/11. Those of us who said war in Iraq would lead to endless conflict and misery were absolutely right to do so. And those who justified those wars are now looking on while the situation escalates.
We must do everything we can to oppose war with Iran - and attacks on Iraq if it demands the withdrawal of US troops.
And just a thought for the new year. US troops are still in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Libyan civil war continues with NATO member Turkey about to intervene there. We have to end these interventions now and demand that our government does not join in Trump’s conflicts. http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php/news-comment/3550-qassem-soleimani-assasination-is-an-act-of-war
The anti-war movement now needs to respond strongly and quickly, in London an anti-war protest has been called outside Downing Street at 2-3pm tomorrow (Saturday) under the heading No War With Iran.There are also calls to organise protests wherever you are. Trumps' strike on Iran now jeapardises his vow to stop 'endless wars' and with his deliberate provocation now seems likely to increase tensions that has a grave risk of instigating a unnecessary war with Iran that would be a tragic disaster for the United States and for the world that could have catastrophic consequences.
President Trump's latest actions are just the latest unilateral actions by his administration following him pulling out of the historic and successful Iran nuclear deal in May 2018, embarked on a 'maximum pressure' campaign that sent thousands more U.S troops to the Middle East; and imposed crippling economic sanctions on Iran which has seen relations between the countries deteriorate ever since.
Furthermore Iran shares a border with a number of countries, that the US considers allies and has a military presence in, including Turkey, Iraq and Afghanistan. None of these countries are especially stable at the moment, as they all continue to deal with ongoing conflicts and their consequences, including millions of displaced people.
Iran is allied with Russia and China, and its unclear how these major powers might react if conflict breaks out. Key US allies Israel and Saudi Arabia , which are adversaries of Iran and just a stone's throw away from it are also likely to get sucked into a US-Iran war.
A war with Iran would fail to achieve any of its aims, but would launch an entire region headlong into deadly conflict, putting the world in grave danger and unleash untold civilian suffering unless we and our political leaders have the strength to stop it , and their is no greater urgency than
now.Trump's unhinged foreign policy has needlessly endangered the lives of many. We should not bee led into another illegal war, er must give peace a chance and prevent anymore bloodshed.
US assassinates Solomon-I, in Iraq, in a Quasi-Shia State, in the wee hours of the morning.
ReplyDeleteY would a Iranian Gen - who is anti-Israel and America, fly from a Commercial/Military Airport in Iraq - when the US embassy was firebombed just a few days ago ? He would have known that all his e-signatures would be tracked by the Americans,second by second,and there would be no dearth of spies at the hangar,ATC,Airport who would ply the Americans with precise coordinates of the General's flight patterns ?
Surely after the US embassy bombing the Good General would have been told by his team to exit Iraq ? Could a general be so careless or foolish - that he would think that he could exit from a designated airport,after the US embassy escapade - and with another designated terrorist (designed by USA) - with makes it a double prime target - and with no collateral baggage ? In ISIS days - he was fighting with the Americans - and those days are over.
Persian Shia'ism is not a suicide cult - it appears to be one - but it is not.So the general was misled into complacency and entrapped by some , in the Iraqi state, to take that flight - and the US embassy firebombing might also have been a false flag operation as the US troops shot no one - id.est., no firebomber was killed.But the sons of Xerxes and Cyrus cannot be so naive and foolish.The General would not have boarded that plane unless he was secured by the Russians and Tehran.
CNN portrays the killing as a "Trump rash reaction" - but it is not.Ultimately,the USA will go to war with Iran - as the Americans do not trust the Persian Shias - on the N-Bomb,and the Persians do not trust the Jews or the Nassara. Soleimani was just the catalyst to push the Persians into the N- Suspension, and go full N-throttle - which is what the Persians have done - and which is what the Americans wanted.
Iraqi govtt will kick out the US troops and the US troops will not leave - as that is what the Americans (and Kurds,Nassara,Sunnis) really want.To be precise, the Kurds,Suniis do not want the Yankii to leave - but that they be asked to leave - so that their mortal fears of living under Persian Shias is brought to the fore - for a partition of the Iraqi state
What the Americans want is to trifurcate Iraq - which will happen inevitably post Soleimani - and which is what the Persians also seek,although the Persians would like to Shia-ise the whole of Iraq.Persian security interests are preserved by destabilising and burning Iraq to create a "sea of fire" between them and the US/Israel and satellite Hezbollahs all over the Gulf,especially encircling the Saudis (The Soleimani Doctrine).But now,they will be happy with a trifurcation
The Americans chose a Persian Shia to kill ,when the whole Sunni world hates Persia and the Persia Shian, and killed him in a Quasi Shia State - and so there is no empathy or support for the Persians - even after the assassination - not even from Russia and PRC.
Obviously,the Russians,PRC,EU would have known - and they did not tip off the Persians and the Americans shot off 4 Hell Fire's - and THERE WAS NO COLLATERAL PRESENCE AT THE AIRPORT AT THAT TIME. A marked man would travel in the presence of ample collateral baggage - like the Hamas and Hezb, do in Gaza - to provoke Collateral damage,and then the Christian empathy,by Amanpour on CNN
The Persians have launched a muffled attack at a site which it knows, hosts no Americans, using missiles which have the capacity to hit US barracks,and knowing that the site hosts Iraqis - where the Iranians had ample intel and time to affix missile coordinates for the terminal descent - and they did not.The Persians used BM with intent,SO THAT THE AMERICANS could track their launch and loading and set up - AND THE AMERICANS did NOT TAKE OUT THE LAUNCHERS AND SILOS - before take off.dindooohindoo
Y did the Russians and Tehran not protect Soleimani ? They allowed him to be killed .
The Iraqi Prime Minister, Abdul Mahdi, says the murdered Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani was in Iraq to discuss Iran's response to a Saudi proposal for de-escalating regional tensions when he was hit by a targeted US drone strike.
ReplyDeleteWhy would Trump want to prevent the de-escalation of tensions in the Middle East?