The Assassination of Qasem Soleimani : The worst mistake in US history.

by Professor Arthur Noble :

“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.” (Matthew 5:21)

On 2 January 2020 US President Trump made what the Unz Review’s Dr Kevin Barrett called “the worst mistake in US history” – one which amounted to the launching of “an all-out war with Iran”.1 In blatant breach of the fundamental statutes of international law, human rights, and even the US Constitution (which would have required approval of Congress prior to any such action), Iran’s top Major General Qasem Soleimani was cowardly killed in cold blood by a drone strike launched by the US from neighbouring Iraq, which US troops have been illegally occupying since the 2003 invasion and the killing of Saddam Hussein based on the lie that he held weapons of mass destruction.

Barrett, currently Senior Editor at Veterans Today and a former CIA agent, summarised the significance of Soleimani in terms worth quoting in full:

“Qasem Soleimani, the legendary hero who defeated ISIS, alongside the popular Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, [...] was by far the most popular figure in Iran, where he polled over 80% popularity, and throughout much of the Middle East. He was also adored by millions even outside that region, non-Muslims as well as Muslims. Many Christians throughout the world loved General Soleimani, whose campaign against ISIS saved the lives of thousands of their co-religionists. Even Sunni Muslims (the people, not the billionaire playboy sheikhs) generally loved and admired the Shia Muslim General Soleimani, a saintly warrior-monk who was uncommonly spiritual, morally impeccable, and the most accomplished military genius of this young century.”2

Fighting ISIS

It is important to remember that Soleimani, who was the Commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was also the battlefield commander who led the fight in neighbouring Iraq by Iranian-backed Shi’ite militia against Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists. The inconvenient fact that Soleimani was the leader of the battle against ISIS in Iraq and Syria between 2014 and 2018 has been carefully airbrushed from most US media coverage and is rarely mentioned in any of the Western mainstream media.

20th Century Wire’s analyst Patrick Henningsen demolishes the Washington and Tel Aviv lie that Solemani was some sort of evil and deadly terrorist, reminding us that unfortunately “the current American political discourse is so thoroughly coated in layers of political fiction that this might take a while to sink in”: “One only has to take a cursory look at reports over the last few years to quickly realise exactly how valuable the Iranian military and its celebrated general were in the global war on terror. Yet, this reality is mostly lost on US war hawks and America’s Conservative punditry class.3

US Army Lt Col Robert Maginnis reiterated similar praise for Soleimani in November 2014 when he explained: “The fighting that’s going on now in Iraq [against Islamic State] quite frankly has been led by General Soleimani, the Quds Force out of Tehran.”4 Soleimani was frequently pictured on the front lines during anti-terrorism operations from Iraq’s Mosul to Syria’s Aleppo. At the height of ISIS’s terror campaign in Iraq he assisted the Baghdad government in operations to retake the strategic oil-rich city of Tikrit from Daesh in 2015.

Let it be remembered too that Soleimani played a further key role in persuading the Kremlin to launch its military operation in Syria to protect Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad from ISIS terrorism and Washington’s illegal attempts to oust him. Is it any wonder that ISIS terrorists are now thanking God that the US murdered Soleimani?

Protecting Christians

Barrett’s reference to Christians’ respect for Soleimani and their gratitude to him for protecting their faith recalls a similar role played by Assad, whom Washington failed to depose after years of vicious lies and propaganda during which Syrian Christians supported him as the democratically elected leader of his country and its secular government which protected them from persecution.

Reports of the persecution of Christians in Iran have been grossly exaggerated to fit the West’s anti-Tehran narrative – many of them fabricated with zero evidence. The Gatestone Institute’s Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, for instance, produced a Washington-slanted article with the ridiculous title “In Iran, it is a crime to be a Christian”.5 This is absolute nonsense. (I have visited Iran.) While all articles of the Constitution of Iran are based on Islamic criteria (in accordance with Article 4), and while there are undoubtedly anti-Christian extremists on the country, Article 13 protects the equal rights of “all people of Iran” and mentions the four “recognised religious minorities” – “Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Christian Iranians”.6

Soleimani’s reputation for protecting Christians demolishes the Gatestone Institute’s dishonest claim.7 What is illegal is only to be converted from Islam to Christianity. The real facts are stated accurately by npr’s Fariba Nawa: “There are hundreds of thousands of Christians in Iran. Those considered part of the native Christian communities are permitted to practice their religion with restrictions, but a Muslim converting to Christianity is considered an apostate. The Iranian government jails converts, especially those who proselytize.”8

Strategic stupidity

Before it killed Soleimani, the US had previously conducted drone attacks in seven countries – Syria, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. Washington makes no distinction between its “enemies” (imagined or otherwise) and its “friends”.

The claim that Major General Qassem Soleimani was a “terrorist” on a mission to carry out an “imminent” attack that would kill hundreds of Americans has proved to be a gross lie.9 The Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi confirmed in a speech in parliament on 6 January 2020 that Soleimani was in fact on his way to Baghdad on a diplomatic peacemaking mission – one which ironically had been encouraged by Washington – to mediate a solution to the regional crisis with Saudi Arabia.10

The intended consequences will now be the opposite: on RT’s World according to Jesse Jimmy Dore put it well: “The US set off a powder keg in Iran that it won’t be able to stop”;11 and not just Iran and Iraq, but other countries in the Middle East and around the world, will be united in their resolve for vengeance and in their determination to destroy every last trace of US presence in the region. Describing Washington’s killing of Soleimani as an “unacceptable breach of Iraqi sovereignty”,12 Mahdi has already demanded the complete removal of occupying American troops from his country and the whole region. Washington refuses to leave, saying that the US has done “a fantastic job” in Iraq (for which read ‘illegally invading and wrecking the country and killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians’); now the US has the arrogance to demand “compensation” for its actions.

According to Washington, Iran and Iraq belong to a list of countries which do not behave “normally”. Does it follow that the US behaves “normally” by threatening, bullying, sanctioning, invading, plundering, occupying and then refusing to leave other people’s countries which refuse to accept its imaginary gift of bringing them “human rights” and “democracy”?

FOOTNOTES

1. https://www.unz.com/kbarrett/trumps-killing-of-soleimani-new-worst-mistake-in-us-history/; Italics mine for emphasis

2. Ibid. Italics mine for emphasis

3 https://geopolitics.co/2020/01/13/official-isis-newspaper-thanks-god-for-trump-killing-irans-general-soleimani/; Italics mine for emphasis

4. Ibid.

5. https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15229/iran-christians-persecution

6. https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-salient-features-of-the-Constitution-of-Iran

7. https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15229/iran-christians-persecution

8. https://www.npr.org/2018/12/14/669662264/iranians-are-converting-to-evangelical-christianity-in-turkey?t=1579207161676; Italics mine for emphasis

9. https://www.globalresearch.ca/who-targeted-ukraine-airlines-flight-752-iran/5700765

10. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/soleimani-was-baghdad-diplomatic-mission-saudi-peace-iraq-pm

11. https://www.rt.com/shows/the-world-according-to-jesse/477890-powder-keg-in-iran/

12. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7893151/US-resumes-joint-military-operations-Iraq-NYT.html