Iraq // USA assassinates Iran and Iraq commanders who fought ISIS~ 3 min

By Duarte Guerreiro

It is difficult to make sense of the assassination of Iran’s Quds Forces leader, Qassem Soleimani, along with the leader of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, from any perspective other than pure electoral opportunism.

Both Soleimani and Mahdi were instrumental in the defeat of ISIS; the first by coordinating and supporting the forces that stood against salafist barbarism and the North-American imperialism that supported it; the second as leader of the irregular forces that were crucial in destroying ISIS inside Iraqi territory, a bastion of the organization. These forces were also important in the protection of the Yazidi people from the genocide promoted by the jihadis.

Destroying these two men, beloved as heroes by the populations rescued from salafist fanaticism (not only in Iran and Iraq, but also in Syria), in the same explosive hell will only have the effect of bringing the Iraqi and Iranian people even closer together and reducing the sectarian hate that the USA has done so much to promote, now replaced by hatred of the common enemy which has brought so much misery to the region.

Making the attack even stupider, killing them will do nothing to change anything. Their missions were fulfilled, their ideas now part of their institutions. All they needed was martyrdom to rise to the status of legends. The USA did them the favor.

To say nothing about the diplomatic atrocity represented by this attack. The United States, without warning, bombed the airport of the capitol of one of its allies, killing one of its main military leaders in the process.

“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” Just as Erdogan placed his bet on starting a war against the Kurds to secure his re-election on favorable terms (successfully), Trump seems to have bet on a similar move. There will be no lack of supporting voices in his administration and the State apparatus, fat as it is with neocons and profiteers who see in a war with Iran a golden opportunity to fill their pockets at the expense of innocent blood.

We will see how the situation develops, especially since Iran is not known to give hot headed responses, but reply it will. Until then it is important to keep an eye on how the media will try to sell us another act of imperialistic aggression. Soleimani is presented as a “bad guy” who liked to kill Americans just because, the same rhetoric previously used on the feeble minded with terminal brain poisoning caused by an excess of Fox News that led to the destruction of Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.

Where were these Americans? Drinking cocktails on Florida beaches? Or occupying destroying and looting the land of others? Those who live by the sword, die by the sword.