THE
ASSIGNATION OF A GENERAL
If you click your mouse on the underlined
words, you will get more information.
Qasem
Soleimani was an Iranian major general who was in charge of the Iranian Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps. From 1998 until his death on January 3rd
2020 at age 62. he was the commander of its Quds Force, a division
primarily responsible for extraterritorial
military and clandestine
operations. In his later years, he was considered the
second most powerful person of Iran behind Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.
Soleimani began his
military career at the start of the Iran–Iraq War during the
1980s, eventually commanding the 41st
Division. He was later involved in extraterritorial operations,
providing military assistance to Hezbollah in Lebanon. In
2012, Soleimani helped bolster the government of Bashar al-Assad, a key Iranian
ally, during Iran's
operations in the Syrian Civil War and helped to
plan the Russian military intervention in Syria. Soleimani
oversaw the Kurdish and Shia
militia forces in Iraq, and assisted the Iraqi forces
that advanced against the terrorist group
ISIL in 2014–2015.
Soleimani was one of the first to support Kurdish forces, providing them
with arms.
Soleimani was widely popular among Iranians, where his
supporters viewed him as a "selfless hero fighting Iran's
enemies." Soleimani was personally sanctioned by the United Nations
and the European Union, and was designated as a terrorist by the United States.
Soleimani was killed in a targeted
U.S. drone strike on the 3rd of January
2020 in Baghdad, which was approved
by President Donald Trump. A
multi-city funeral was held in Iraq and Iran for the killed
general and other casualties. Hours after Soleimani's burial on the 7th of January
2020, the Iranian military launched
two missiles against U.S. bases in Iraq There were n0American
or Iraqi lives lost or injured in the attack because according to Iran, the
missiles were not aimed at the housing
of the Americans or Iraqi forces. Further. the Iranians informed
the president of Iraq that missiles were being fired at the America air base and he in turn, informed
the Americans of the missiles being fired at them. That was a smart move on the part of the
Iranians because if American and Iraqi forces were killed, it would have been
deemed as a declaration of war on the part of Iran.
That raises an interesting question. If the missile that
killed Soleimani in Iran, could it be considered a declaration of war by the
Americans against Iran. President Trump who sanctioned the assassination is a
stupid man but he wasn’t that stupid. That is why Soleimani was assassinated in
Iraq,
Soleimani strengthened the relationship between Quds Force
and Hezbollah upon his appointment, and supported the latter by sending in
operatives to retake southern Lebanon. In an interview aired in October 2019,
he said he was in Lebanon during the 2006
Israel–Hezbollah War to oversee the conflict.
Soleimani
was described by an ex-CIA operative as "the single most
powerful operative in the Middle East today" and the principal military strategist
and tactician in Iran's effort to combat Western influence and promote the
expansion of Shiite and Iranian influence
throughout the Middle East. In Iraq, he was the commander of the Quds
Force and he was believed to have
strongly influenced the organization of the Iraqi government, notably
supporting the election of previous Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Malik.
According to several sources, including Riad Hijab, a former Syrian
premier who defected in August 2012, Soleimani was one of the staunchest
supporters of the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian Civil War. In the later half
of 2012, Soleimani assumed personal control of the Iranian intervention in the
Syrian Civil War, when the Iranians became deeply concerned about the Assad
government's lack of ability to fight the opposition, and the fallout to the
Islamic Republic if the Syrian government fell. He reportedly coordinated the
war from a base in Damascus at which a
Lebanese Hezbollah commander and an Iraqi Shiite militia coordinator were
mobilized, in addition to Syrian and Iranian officers. Under Soleimani the
command "coordinated attacks, trained militias, and set up an elaborate
system to monitor rebel communications". According to a Middle Eastern
security official Dexter Filkins talked to, thousands of Quds Force and Iraqi
Shiite militiamen in Syria were "spread out across the entire country".[ The retaking
of Qusayr in May 2013 from rebel forces and Al-Nusra Front was, according
to John Maguire, a former CIA officer in
Iraq, "orchestrated" by Soleimani.
Soleimani was much credited in Syria for the strategy that
assisted President Bashar al-Assad in finally repulsing rebel forces and
recapturing key cities and towns. He was involved in the training of
government-allied militias and the coordination of decisive military offensives.[2] The
sighting of Iranian UAVs in Syria
strongly suggested that his command, the Quds Force, was involved in the civil
war.
In 2015, Soleimani
began gathering support from various sources to combat the newly resurgent ISIL
and rebel groups which had both successfully taken large swaths of territory
from Assad's forces. He was reportedly the main architect of the joint
intervention involving Russia as a new partner with Assad and Hezbollah.
According to
Reuters, at a meeting in Moscow in July, Soleimani unfurled a map of Syria to
explain to his Russian hosts how a series of defeats for President Bashar
al-Assad could be turned into victory – with Russia's help. Soleimani's
visit to Moscow was the first step in planning for a Russian military
intervention that has reshaped the Syrian war and forged a new Iran–Russia
alliance in support of the Syrian (and Iraqi) governments.
Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei also sent a senior envoy to Moscow to meet
President Vladimir Putin. "Putin reportedly told a senior Iranian envoy
'Okay we will intervene. Send Qassem Soleimani.'General Soleimani went to
explain the map of the theatre and coordinate the strategic escalation of military
forces in Syria.
Soleimani had a decisive impact on the theater of operations,
which led to a strong advance in southern Aleppo with the government and allied
forces re-capturing two military bases and dozens of towns and villages in a
matter of weeks. There was also a series of major advances
towards Kuweiris air-base to the north-east.[75] By
mid-November, the Syrian army and its allies had gained ground in southern
areas of Aleppo Governorate, capturing numerous rebel strongholds. Soleimani
was reported to have personally led the drive deep into the southern Aleppo
countryside where many towns and villages fell into government hands. He
reportedly commanded the Syrian Arab Army's 4th Mechanized Division, Hezbollah,
Harakat Al-Nujaba (Iraqi), Kata'ib Hezbollah (Iraqi), Liwaa Abu Fadl Al-Abbas
(Iraqi), and Firqa Fatayyemoun (Afghan/Iranian volunteers
In early February 2016, backed by Russian and Syrian air
force airstrikes, the 4th Mechanized Division – in close
coordination with Hezbollah, the National Defense Forces (NDF), Kata'eb
Hezbollah, and Harakat Al-Nujaba – launched an
offensive in Aleppo Governorate's northern
countryside, which eventually broke the three-year siege
of Nubl and Al-Zahraa and cut off the rebels' main supply route
from Turkey. According to a senior, non-Syrian security source close to Damascus,
Iranian fighters played a crucial role in the conflict. "Qassem Soleimani
is there in the same area", he said. In December 2016, new photos
emerged of Soleimani at the Citadel of Aleppo, though the exact
date of the photos is unknown.
As you an see from the above info,
the Iranian major general played an important role in the battles re fighting
the ISIS terrorists in Syria and Iraq.
However, he was also assisting the
dictator of Syria who is an evil man to stay in power. Does that make the major
general a war criminal? I don’t think so.
Even though he was the head of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, that also
doesn’t make him a war criminal.
President Trump in attempting to justify the
assassination of Soleimani publically stated that Soleimani was an
imminent danger to the United States. military. For days, he didn’t say what
the imminent danger was until a few days later when he said that Soleimani was going to order attacks on
American embassies in the area.
What proof did President Trump have to bolster
that statement? Did he presume that since the American embassy in Iraq was
attacked by a mob, it was ordered by Soleimani?
Trump is such a bald-face liar since he has lied thousands of
times to the public since he ran for office as president. His words are worth
as little as a small grain of salt. It
is only the members of the Republican party who believe that what that
pathological liar says is the gospel truth.
Soleimani played a key role in Iran's fight against ISIL in Iraq. He is
described as the "linchpin" bringing together Kurdish and Shia forces
to fight ISIS, overseeing joint operations conducted by the two groups In 2014,
Soleimani was in the Iraqi city of Amirli,
to work with Iraqi forces to push back ISIL militants.[24][83] The Los Angeles
Times reported that Amirli was the first town to
successfully withstand an ISIL invasion, and was secured thanks to "an
unusual partnership of Iraqi and Kurdish soldiers, Iranian-backed Shiite
militias and U.S. warplanes".
A senior Iraqi official told the BBC that when the city of Mosul fell, the rapid
reaction of Iran, rather than American bombing, was what prevented a more
widespread collapse. Soleimani also seems to have been instrumental in
planning the operation to relieve Amirli in Saladin Governorate, where ISIL had
laid siege to an important city. In fact, the Quds force operatives under
Soleimani's command seem to have been deeply involved with not only the Iraqi
army and Shi'ite militias but also the Kurdish forces in the Battle of
Amirli, by providing not only liaisons for intelligence-sharing but also
the supply of arms and munitions in addition to expertise.
Soleimani played an
integral role in the organization and planning of the crucial operation
to retake
the city of Tikrit in Iraq from ISIL. The city of Tikrit
rests on the left bank of the Tigris river and is
the largest and most important city between Baghdad and Mosul, giving it a high
strategic value. The city fell to ISIL during 2014 when ISIL made immense gains
in northern and central Iraq. After its capture, ISIL's massacre
at Camp Speicher led to 1,600 to 1,700 deaths of Iraqi
Army cadets and soldiers. After months of careful preparation and intelligence
gathering an offensive to encircle and capture Tikrit was launched in early
March 2015.
In 2016, photos
published by a Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) source showed Soleimani
attending a meeting of PMF commanders in Iraq to discuss the Battle of
Fallujah
The then CIA
chief Mike Pompeo said
that he sent Soleimani and other Iranian leaders a letter holding them
responsible for any attacks on U.S. interests by forces under their control.
According to Mohammad
Mohammadi Golpayegani, a senior aide for Iran's supreme leader,
Soleimani ignored the letter when it was handed over to him during the Abu Kamal
offensive against ISIL, saying "I will not take your
letter nor read it and I have nothing to say to these people.’
Soleimani was killed on the 3rd of January 2020 around 1:00 a.m. local time (22:00 UTC 2 January),
by missiles shot from American drones which targeted his convoy near Baghdad InternationalAirport.. The BBC, NBC News, DW News, Time, The Guardian and other media outlets
have said Soleimani was assassinated or described the killing as an
assassination.
Iraqi prime minister Mahdi said Soleimani was bringing Iran's
response to a letter that Iraq had sent out on behalf of Saudi Arabia in order
to ease tensions between the two countries in the region.
Regarding the decision to kill Soleimani, the Pentagon focused on both
his past actions and a deterrent to his future action. The
airstrike followed attacks
on the American embassy in Baghdad by supporters
of an Iran-backed Iraqi Shia militia and the 2019
K-1 Air Base attack. Anonymous officials told The New York Times that Trump had initially decided to strike at the Shia
militia, but instead chose the most extreme option proposed –the killing of Soleimani after seeing
television footage of the attack on the embassy. Trump said
to reporters. “Soleimani should have been eliminated by former presidents.”
That statement was made by a coward who had no concept of
war. I said he was a coward because
during the war in Viet Nam, he was to be
drafted into the American armed forces but he managed to avoid the draft.
The U.S.
Defense Department said the strike was carried out "at
the direction of the President" and asserted that Soleimani had been
planning further attacks on American
diplomats and military personnel and had approved the attacks on
the American embassy in Baghdad in response to U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria on 29 December 2019, and that the
strike was meant to deter future attacks.
Here is a difficult question to be answered. What proof did
the Defence Department have in their possession to make that presumption? If
they don’t disclose that information, the decision by Trump will be highly
suspect.
It is ironic when you think about it. Trump was seriously
thinking of sending missiles into Iranian cultural sites. When comparing him
with the man he ordered to be assassinated, which of these two men is closer to
being a war criminal? The question is obviously
academic.
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