No War With Iran

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.

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.