On the outskirts of the Baghdad International Airport, a US drone attacked a delegation including the top figure in Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), killing him as well as several others, including Iran’s Quds Forces commander, Gen. Qassem Soleimani. The White House confirmed President Trump ordered the attack, and emphasized that they considered Soleimani a “terrorist.”
Details are continuing to emerge on the attack and killings, but indications are that Gen. Soleimani is dead, as is Iraq’s PMU media chief Mohammed Reda al-Jabri, along with his guards. Iraqi state media also reported Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the head of the PMU, to have been killed in the attack. Five PMU and two “guests” were reported killed. Soleimani is assumed to be a guest, and Lebanese Hezbollah figure Muhammad al-Kawtharani is also reported to have been slain.
The PMU has already issued a statement on social media reporting on the deaths, and blaming them on a “cowardly US attack.” Another PMU spokesman blamed the US and Israel jointly.
This is certainly an act of war not just on Iran, but also against Iraq, which is almost certain to be livid over a US attack against its largest civilian airport and assassination of two top figures of its PMU paramilitary force.
The Pentagon has issued a statement confirming the attack, trying to present it as purely defensive in nature, and claiming Soleimani was planning to kill US diplomats. The attack comes just hours after Defense Secretary Mark Esper threatened to attack Iran, and amid repeated warnings for Americans to get out of Iraq, especially the Baghdad area.
This will make ISIS so happy. Soleimani and the PMU were instrumental in defeating ISIS in Iraq, so this is another indication, if any was necessary, that ISIS is an Amerikastani tool and Amerikastan wants it to return.
Yes. It’s only half-joking to say that America was also protecting its “moderate” headchopping allies like ISIS with this state-sponsored assassination.
Happy New Year… Lookin’ to be our last.
Any immunity for VIPs as guests in an another country is shut to hell.
Absolutely correct and that has been cause by Trump and the US.
The US is the major state sponsor of terrorism in the World.
All US forces, diplomatic staff anwhere in the world are now at risk, expect a fate of accidents & murders ahead.
It’s not as though they don’t deserve it.
It is also possible that Netanyahu and MBS will carry out assassinations and pin it on Iran if Iranians do not retaliate and escalate the conflict.
Never allow any facts–or even contra-narratives–to contravene the “official” narrative.
There’s a whole universe worth of fecal matter headed straight for the fan. All bets are off.
In death, he will become a thousand times more powerful than he ever was in life.
Thank President Kushner for this New Year’s gift.
Even Trump should know that this is hardly the way to “deter”Iran. As for “terrorism”, it is Iran which is one of the main fighters against ISIS.
What success to the USA has the last thirty years of interference in Iraq brought?
Massive profits for MIC and central banker cartel.
You’re completely right. Yes, even DJT should know this is hardly the way to “deter” Iran. As for “terrorism”, it’s Iran which is one of the main fighters against ISIS.
What success to the US has the last 30 years of interference in Iraq brought?? The answer is, nothing. Iraq used to be an enemy of Iran .. Now, the 2 countries are close allies, ALL US forces must leave the Middle East and let the various nations within it, either continue their conflicts, or negotiate for peace in that region.
I think we can say the US is now officially an occupying power in Iraq.
Not only is this a declaration of war against Iran (remember the assasination of Archduke Ferdinand in 1914) but the murder of Iraqi dignitaries will push them closer to Iran.
I hope that Iran react in a measured way – maybe the assasination of a US politician?
It would be nice if we could make a list for them.
Trump’s mistake was to tweet American flag; it should be an Israeli flag.
It was quite predictable that Bibi would try to start a new escalation in order to keep his seat under emergency. Only yesterday he was seeking immunity to keep himself out of jail, so there is a little doubt that Bibi is the one who was asking for the assassination – Bibi is the winner from chaos and war (as always).
To conclude, Trump is working full time for a foreign power, he is risking our security and is playing with fire (serving Israel and his Zionist-Evangelist base). What about impeachment for a real violation of the constitution???
IMPEACH NOW!
Much of Congress is IOT (Israeli Occupied Territory).
Nah, it should be an American flag. Look at American history with clean eyes. Remember the 1953 coup d’etat ? Did Israel make Obama and Kerry create the JCPOA ? Nope. You’re seeing the true America.
US occupiers in the region will have some very bad night sleep from now on and ultimately a couple of hundreds of them will inevitably have to pay the price.
US is history in ME.
The Neocons have gone completely mad, they just killed 20 people and wounded 50, because a US contractor got killed, now the US assassinated a top Iranian General who helped Iraq get rid of ISIS in Iraq + five members of the Iraq’s Shia Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) as well as “two guests”
Stupidity beyond repair.
The neocons are merely the ‘proud purists’ in the american establishment. All of the mainstream is imperialist and pro military and nonmilitary interventionism. So why blame this on neocons as if they don’t represent the system?
Are completely mad…. or a fool
The neocons are in charge politically they run the WH, the State Dep. The Pentagon, the CIA, the Senate. The politicians and MSM are the military industrial complex tool.
Who is supposed to be mad or a fool? Me?
I notice what you are saying is that the neocons are everywhere. It is not different from what I am saying. Look at it this way: I’m using a stricter interpretation of neocon. There aren’t that many of them, maybe a few hundred. But I would call most of the establishment ‘pseudo-neocon’ then, because they are mostly imperialist. You’re saying the neocons are everywhere. If you stretch the meaning of neocons to include pseudo-neocons then yes, they are everywhere.
But yet you eagerly conclude I’m a fool. What does that make you?
Why are we talking about the neocons? This was Trump’s decision. He owns it. Don’t try to pawn it off onto your favorite punching bag to make him look better.
To point fingers at neocons without identifying them as the dog being wagged by the Zionist tail is to miss the point entirely.
No one has ever accused the US of being rational.
Agree.
The assassination of Suleimani could be that Sarajevo-type act to trigger world war three, though there are also many other flash-points globally. Through the growing instability and chaos the pattern of history follows its logical path to nuclear holocaust.
https://www.ghostsofhistory.wordpress.com/
Remember how often THIS VERY WEBSITE told us Trump was going to disrupt the war party? Thanks, a lot, Justin.
People want a source of hope. The anti war crowd had been lacking water in this desert for a long time, mirages will blind the brightest of minds.
Well put. What’s scary is that those mirages are still visible to sooo many of his supporters.
Justin might be right yet, tho, he never got the method right. Trump could bring the empire down thru gross incompetence, and inattention, not from any ideology or method.
Nah, he was most often verbose but wrong, and slavish in his corporate libertarianism.
That’s a very valid point. Trump does have an antiwar streak, and he even has shown an aversion to nuclear weapons.
But as Groucho Marx said ‘these are my principles. If you don’t like them, I have others’. Trump is very flexible and adaptive and isn’t bothered with putting principles aside for other interests. When he is surrounded by an establishment of warmongers then he will act as a warmonger. If he doesn’t want to act like a warmonger then he has to pick the people who will support him in that. There aren’t that many because as I pointed out elsewhere, the majority is pseudo-neocon. But he picked Bolton.
“Trump does have an antiwar streak, and he even has shown an aversion to nuclear weapons.”
Sure, if he has the right audience.
Well, yes and no. He is willing to say anything which benefits him but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have beliefs and he has stated them. Getting along with North Korea and Russia amongst them, getting out of Afghanistan and Syria. Who was he trying to please by his claims about North Korea? I don’t see it, it’s just what he thought.
I think he surrounds himself with the nastiest people because he believes in the nastiest forms of negotiating and posturing and bullying. Only these people, like Bolton and Pompeo, actually want more, in the case of Iran want to escalate war. Apparently Trump is not bothered enough by that.
I don’t think he gives a flying f*ck about “getting along” with Russia or North Korea. He’s refuses to give NK sanction relief and his sanctions against Russia along with his weapons sales to the Nazis in Ukraine hardly suggest him wanting to get along with either. And his wanting to get out of Afghanistan or Syria weren’t very strong “beliefs”. He did two missile attacks on Syria based on bullsh*t, wanted to assassinate Assad and now is bragging about stealing Syria’s oil. And never mind him lessening the rules of engagement in Afghanistan, the increased bombing attacks, dropping the MOAB” or bragging about how he could kill 10 million people in a week if he wanted to. So, much more “yes” than “no”.
In theory our points of view are different, in practice it is bloody hard to see how much the difference matters. I think some libertarians and others have noticed a real antiwar element in Trumps thinking but there is so much other stuff getting in the way that one wonders it it matters at all.
This is from October of 2012.
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Don’t let Obama play the Iran card in order to start a war in order to get elected–be careful Republicans!
He was lamenting that Obama would use the card and win, not that the card would be played.
Probably all one needs to know: bolton and nitenyaaaahooo cannot contain themselves with their glee!
I’m certainly sure of it, Taras .. Bonkers Bolton and Nutty&Yahoo can’t contain themselves with their glee and hubris. I hope that very soon the 2 scumbags will be cowering in terror as Iran retaliates.
And yet neither Bolton or Bibi gave the order to attack. So lets hope there is at least one more scumbag cowering right next to them.
Blood is dripping from the fangs of the war pigs.
This is even a day before the assassination.
Trump Stumbling Into Neocon Trap In Iraq
Yeah, “outrage on Muslim streets” & all that tired blather. Not much will happen. Like the Phantom of the Opera, a US president kills without a thought and murders all that’s good. Mainstream media are exultant.
The world’s leading gangster republic is spoiling for a fight against Iran. That has been on the cards for decades anyway. Another war on behalf of Israel is on the horizon. Iraqis even though powerless, want to see the American occupiers out of their country. But America, on orders from their Zionist masters does not need much to find justification for the wholesale slaughter of yet more citizens of a country that has paused no threat to the US. Along with the slaughter, yet another country, Iran, is targeted for destruction as has happened (and continues to happen) in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Somalia. Others such as Honduras, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Haiti, can enjoy a reprieve — no matter how transient, a sigh of relief at being spared overt warfare although in Venezuela over 80,000 HIV sufferers are denied medicines essential for their survival. It is a slow genocide in plain view.
Mike Pompeo is trying to be a good Christian and bring about the Rapture.
Here’s my prediction. Iran will immediately see the opportunity here. Soleimani’s assassination is a spiritual loss, a national insult, and an act of war, and will consequently inflame the Iranian people who viewed Soleimani as a national hero, and now as a martyr. Fine. Operationally however, he’s just a dead general. He will be replaced, has already been replaced.
The Iranian leadership, per their responsibility, will be careful, as they must be. The American monster is still out there and still determined to provoke Iran into providing a cassus belli.
Not gonna happen. If Iran hasn’t taken the bait before, they won’t take it now. They will however exploit this incident for the very real opportunity it offers them. This business makes it clear to the Iraqis that they are in imminent danger of having a US-Iran war break out on Iraqi territory, with them caught in the middle.
They have already stated that they don’t want that, they don’t want a war staged from their territory. (Well duh!)
Meanwhile, they’ve had their own forces attacked by the US on Iraqi territory, they’ve had an ally general, a general instrumental in defeating ISIS, assassinated by the US on their territory, and they’ve had US marines arresting members of their own parliament and military on their territory. Without question, these outrageous insults to Iraqi sovereignty combined with the imminent danger of war on Iraqi territory, will be used by the Iranians to persuade the Iraqis to expel the Americans, which the Iraqis will most certainly seek to do.
Which will create incredible difficulty for the US, as the US will have no legal basis for staying when the Iraqi govt demands that they leave. Refusing to leave will transform the Americans into hostile occupiers, which creates its own set of problems. While leaving, and losing their airbase in Iraq will make protecting/supporting their forces in in the region — ie in Syria — a whole lot harder.
The “Rah rah! America, fuck yeah!” chest pumping will be indulged in by US “patriots” — arrogant fools — but the real-world consequences will make the US position only more difficult. (Meanwhile, if the US decides to just do it, and attacks Iran, the damage to all involved will reach a whole new level.)
J. Bolton`s tweet.
“The assassination of Gen. Qassem Soleimani was long in the making”.
Sen. L. Graham ” Trump told me a week ago that they would assassinate Soleimani”
iminent threat is a lie.
The death of the US contractor ( Fake ), the demo at the US embassy had nothing to do with Soleimani.
The sanctions failed, So next step was to escalade, to bring Iran to its knees.
There are already 60K soldiers in the era, but there will be send several thousands more…..smells like a plan long in the making.