Thread: US carries out ‘precision defensive strikes’ in Iraq and Syria against Iranian-backed

Originally Posted by bowie

It is unfortunate that Soleimani was not taken out earlier, he was a most adept purveyor of terrorism.

The US unwittingly helped create Qassem Soleimani. Then they killed him.
Scott Ritter
Scott Ritter is a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer. He served in the Soviet Union as an inspector implementing the INF Treaty, in General Schwarzkopf’s staff during the Gulf War, and from 1991-1998 as a UN weapons inspector.
3 Jan, 2020 20:50


The US is unprepared for the consequences of its assassination of Qassem Soleimani, if only because it knows nothing about the reality of the man it murdered, and can’t gauge the impact of his death on Iran or the Middle East.

Qassem Soleimani, an Iranian military commander whose paramilitary organization, known as the Quds Force, helped position Iran as a modern regional power, was assassinated on January 3, 2020, on order of the President of the United States, Donald Trump. American political leaders of both major parties have been united in their description of Soleimani as an evil man whose death should be celebrated, even while the consequences of his demise remain unknown.

The celebration of Soleimani’s death, however, is born of an ignorance regarding the events and actions that shaped the work he directed, and which defined the world in which he operated. While the US has cast Soleimani as a byproduct of Iran’s malign intent in the Middle East, the reality is much starker: Soleimani is the direct result of America’s irresponsibly aggressive policies. In a world defined by cause-effect relationships, the link between Soleimani and the United States is undeniable.

Making of an enemy hero
Soleimani gained prominence in Iran during the Iranian Revolution and the eight-year war with Iraq, where his leadership, courage and decisiveness caught the attention of senior Iranian leaders including then-President Ali Khamenei. During this time, Soleimani developed the skillset that would later serve him well as the leader of the Quds Force, the paramilitary organization he helped found in the aftermath of the Iran-Iraq War.

The Quds Force was designed to project Iranian influence through covert means. Soleimani and the Quds Force first came into prominence in 1998, after the Taliban murdered hundreds of Afghan Shi’a and nine Iranians (eight diplomats and a journalist) following the capture of the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i Sharif.

While senior Iranian military leadership advocated a massive punitive expedition into western Afghanistan, Soleimani advised a more constrained response, with his Quds Force providing training and material support to the Northern Alliance, an umbrella group of forces opposed to the Taliban. Soleimani personally directed this effort, transforming the Northern Alliance into an effective fighting force.

After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the US used the Northern Alliance to establish a foothold in Afghanistan and eventually drive the Taliban from power. Soleimani played a major role behind the scenes helping make the US-Northern Alliance partnership viable, including providing operational and intelligence support.

The US-Iranian cooperation was short-lived; President Bush’s designation of Iran as being part of “an Axis of Evil” caused Iran to terminate its cooperation with the Americans.

Training the anti-US Iraq rebels
The US invasion of Iraq in 2003 created another opportunity for Iranian-American cooperation, which the US promptly fumbled. While Iran had no desire for increased American military presence in the region, it found common cause with the US in removing its archenemy, Saddam Hussein, from power.

The Americans, however, were ill-prepared to cope with the reality of a post-Saddam Iraq, especially one where the majority Shi’a population would demand a major role in determining how Iraq would be governed. When the US started turning its guns on Shi’a forces, Soleimani and his Quds Force took the lead in organizing anti-American resistance in Iraq, leading to increasingly violent clashes that resulted in significant American casualties.

Today, many veterans of the US war in Iraq hold Soleimani personally accountable for the hundreds of American soldiers who lost their lives due to the tactics employed by Iraqi militias trained and equipped by Soleimani’s Quds Force.

Mastermind of Tehran’s regional domination plan
Soleimani did not emerge in a vacuum, but rather was the manifestation of the logical response of Iran to external threats brought on by the actions of others. Iran’s role in Lebanon was defined by Israel’s decision to invade and occupy southern Lebanon in 1982; the creation of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement followed.

Iran’s intervention in Syria likewise came on the heels of a massive intervention by outside powers, including the United States, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, to create a resistance designed to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power. Soleimani’s actions in directing the Quds Force to organize pro-Assad Shi’a militias in Syria was simply a reaction to this foreign intervention in Syria’s sovereign affairs.

Likewise, when the Islamic State erupted on the scene in 2014, it was Soleimani, at the invitation of the Iraqi government, who helped organize and equip various Shi’a militias under the umbrella of the Popular Mobilization Force. Soleimani went on to direct the PMF in a series of bloody battles that helped turn the tide against the Islamic State well before the US became decisively engaged in the fighting. Soleimani played a defining role in shaping the Middle East in the aftermath of 9/11, positioning Iran to become a major power in the region, if not the major power.

Soleimani’s actions in accomplishing this outcome, however, were not part of a master Iranian plan for regional domination, but rather part and parcel of Iran’s ability to react effectively to the mistakes made by the United States and its allies in implementing policies of aggression in the region.

In the aftermath of the US withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear Agreement in 2018, and the subsequent implementation of the so-called “maximum pressure” campaign of economic sanctions and geo-political containment undertaken by the United States, Soleimani cautioned President Trump against embarking down a path toward confrontation.

“You are aware of our power and capabilities in the region”, Soleimani said in a speech delivered in the summer of 2018. “You know how powerful we are in asymmetrical warfare.”

Soleimani’s statements were prophetic; after the US blocked the sale of Iranian oil, Soleimani’s Quds Force responded by orchestrating a series of deniable attacks on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, and used Houthi proxies in Yemen to launch a devastating attack using armed drones against strategic Saudi oil production facilities.

Recognizing the vulnerability of the US position in Iraq, Soleimani began putting pressure on the Iraqi government to bring an end to the US military presence on Iraqi soil. These activities were underway even before the US bombed the Iraqi Popular Militia Forces last Sunday, setting into motion the events that culminated in Soleimani’s assassination.

Will his death make the world safer?
The reality is that the only thing more dangerous for the US than a world where Qassem Soleimani is living is a one where Qassem Soleimani is dead, murdered on orders of an American President.

Alive, Soleimani would be able to credibly advise patience and caution to an Iranian leadership increasingly pressured by more militant members of the Iranian defense establishment to take a more proactive stance in countering American, Saudi and Israeli policies in the region.

Murdered, Soleimani is transformed into a martyr-hero whose exploits will motivate those who seek to replicate them against an American foe void of the kind of self-constraint and wisdom born of experience.

Far from making the Middle East and the world a safer place to live and work, President Trump’s precipitous assassination of Qassem Soleimani has condemned yet another generation to suffer the tragic consequences of American overreach in the post-9/11 era.

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/477423-us-s...-consequences/

Originally Posted by OhOh

When did Iran escalate the current event?

When they sent their proxy militia in iraq to go and attack the US embassy, you blithering fuckwit.

Originally Posted by raycarey

it's 5 am EST and trump has been awake for some time..... cable news is showing the massive crowds on the streets of baghad screaming 'death to america'.

if you don't think this is going to have an impact on trump's increasingly impulsive behavior then you haven't been paying attention.

Fucking hell Ray, the Shi'a are *always* out on the street screaming "Death to America" FFS.

No-one cares, I can remember Jay Leno taking the piss out of one of them because he was wearing a Chicago Bulls shirt, it's that old

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Fucking hell Ray, the Shi'a are *always* out on the street screaming "Death to America" FFS.

Ray has been known to get a bit wound up.

Originally Posted by raycarey

in theory it could.....but we heard that in 2001 about afghanistan and 2003 about iraq.

yet the US is still mired in both countries after costing untold numbers of lives and wasting trillions of dollars.

That's because that was a money making venture. Not worth it at the current oil price.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

That's because that was a money making venture. Not worth it at the current oil price.

I should really qualify that by saying it is baldy orange cunto so anything is possible.

I mean if they offer to build a Trump Tower Teheran, they'll all be mates again.

^ The UK considered it in 2006/7, got turned off.

Originally Posted by Plan B

allies

Do they still have any? The Brits and the jews maybe..

Well they aren't even forewarning their allied now so .....

Originally Posted by NamPikToot

Well they aren't even forewarning their allied now so .....

Seriously, who does trump consider allies?

His daughter

Originally Posted by OhOh

why ameristan "terminated" the life of the Iraqi Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis

It was reported on CNN that he was arranging multi-pronged attacks on American citizens, contractors, servicemen/troops/military and Diplomats. That terminating him would derail the attacks and save countless American lives.


http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ir...-idUSKBN1Z301Z

The Revolutionary Guards commander instructed his top ally in Iraq, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and other powerful militia leaders to step up attacks on U.S. targets in the country using sophisticated new weapons provided by Iran, two militia commanders and two security sources briefed on the gathering told Reuters.

The strategy session, which has not been previously reported, came as mass protests against Iran’s growing influence in Iraq were gaining momentum, putting the Islamic Republic in an unwelcome spotlight. Soleimani’s plans to attack U.S. forces aimed to provoke a military response that would redirect that rising anger toward the United States, according to the sources briefed on the gathering, Iraqi Shi’ite politicians and government officials close to Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi.

Soleimani’s efforts ended up provoking the U.S. attack on Friday that killed him and Muhandis, marking a major escalation of tensions between the United States and Iran. The two men died in air strikes on their convoy at a Baghdad airport as they headed to the capital, dealing a major blow to the Islamic Republic and the Iraqi paramilitary groups it supports.

Two weeks before the October meeting, Soleimani ordered Iranian Revolutionary Guards to move more sophisticated weapons - such as Katyusha rockets and shoulder-fired missiles that could bring down helicopters - to Iraq through two border crossings, the militia commanders and Iraqi security sources told Reuters.

At the Baghdad villa, Soleimani told the assembled commanders to form a new militia group of low-profile paramilitaries - unknown to the United States - who could carry out rocket attacks on Americans housed at Iraqi military bases. He ordered Kataib Hezbollah - a force founded by Muhandis and trained in Iran - to direct the new plan, said the militia sources briefed on the meetings.

Soleimani told them such a group “would be difficult to detect by the Americans,” one of the militia sources told Reuters.

Before the attacks, the U.S. intelligence community had reason to believe that Soleimani was involved in “late stage” planning to strike Americans in multiple countries, including Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, U.S. officials told Reuters Friday on condition of anonymity. One senior U.S. official said Soleimani had supplied advanced weaponry to Kataib Hezbollah.

White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien told reporters on Friday that Soleimani had just come from Damascus, “where he was planning attacks on American soldiers, airmen, Marines, sailors and against our diplomats.”

Originally Posted by bowie

It was reported on CNN that he was arranging multi-pronged attacks on American citizens, contractors, servicemen/troops/military and Diplomats. That terminating him would derail the attacks and save countless American lives.

Why make such a long long whitewashing explanation when they only need to claim that he had weapons of mass destruction.

There a a number of UK and US citizens "held" in Tehran under a range of dubious charges, the most famous from the UK perspective is Nazanin Zighari-Ratcliffe who's been held since 2016 on bogus charges, they could well be the real victims in this.

Originally Posted by bowie

two militia commanders and two security sources briefed on the gathering told Reuters.

Originally Posted by bowie

Two weeks before the October meeting, Soleimani ordered Iranian Revolutionary Guards to move more sophisticated weapons - such as Katyusha rockets and shoulder-fired missiles that could bring down helicopters - to Iraq through two border crossings, the militia commanders and Iraqi security sources told Reuters.

My apologies.

Trustworthy Reuters, again quoting unspecified nationality unnamed sources, who were "briefed" by another unspecified nationality unnamed source.

Thanks for such factual reporting of a Reuters puff piece.

You do realise that "others" in Syria and Iraq have had these "Katyusha Rockets" in their arsenal for some time now.

It's true and easily accessed by entering the named weapons in your favourite search engine.

Originally Posted by NamPikToot

Nazanin Zighari-Ratcliffe who's been held since 2016 on bogus charges,

One spokesman's "bogus" is another's "slam dunk fact", to borrow a sporting phrase utilised by many when describing the winning actions from one international sport, dominated by exceptional non-white participants.

Boris Johnson has lied and broken promises over Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, says husband

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-a9226936.html

Bogus or being manipulated by UK politicians.I'm sure it being a quality "UK newspaper" we can rely on the article to be accurately "fact" checked.

Originally Posted by NamPikToot

they could well be the real victims in this

If we adopt 'arry's definition, we await until she has been officially "splattered across the desert"

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

It's the US vs Shi'a at the moment.

The Sunni won't shed a single tear over the assassination of that slag.

In fact they weren't too pissed off at the bombing that led to the embassy protests either.

"Iraq's (Sunni) Grand Mufti Sheikh Mehdi Ahmed al-Sumaidaie calls on ALL Iraqi Sunnis to unite with Iraqi Shias in attacking the US: ''My army and I are ready to destroy America, The Great Satan. God is with us and we shall be victorious.''

https://twitter.com/Brasco_Aad/statu...98068654456834

Not sure if twatter has any fact checking rules.

So now we're posting any old shite on twatter and pretending it's "news" are we? And nicking other people's picture comments as well. But being too stupid to realise that it anchors it in the post even when you delete it.

You fucking twat.

you are a sacrifice trump is prepared to make

Originally Posted by CSFFan

Seriously, who does trump consider allies?

Not sure but bet Israel and Saudi Arabia gave the thumbs up on killing the infamous General.

Originally Posted by CSFFan

Seriously, who does trump consider allies?

Originally Posted by NamPikToot

His daughter

...

Somewhat overlooked by the rara brigade is the fact that this was an act of war against not just Iran, but Iraq too- as a senior Iraqi General was assassinated. So much for the liberation of Iraq. So much for the rump US occupation too (well, of Baghdad anyway), which is looking increasingly tenuous. They might as well scuttle on out of there and back to the relative safety of Bahrein, even though it too is majority Shiite.

Anyway, we've seen it all before- chop one head off a Hydra, and what changes? Two grow back. The US seems to specialise in these sort of futile exercises- and one has to wonder how much of it is for domestic political purposes, given the inevitable PR orgy- while losing on the ground. Soleimi was a brilliant General btw, and widely respected in a country and region where the Mullah's distrust adulation of anyone but themselves. There will certainly be blowback, and the US has handed a victory to the religious hardliners.

I think the next American war should take place in a Hollywood studio. Or perhaps a synagogue.