January 07, 2020 "Information
Clearing House" -
The media continue to tell fairytales about
Qassem Soleimani and about Trump's decision
to assassinate him and PMU leader Abu Mahdi
al-Muhandis. Meanwhile the Resistance Axis
announced how it will avenge their deaths.
In their descriptions of Qassem Soleimani
U.S. media fail to mention that Soleimani
and the U.S. fought on the same side. In
2001 Iran supported the U.S. invasion of
Afghanistan. It used its good relations with
the Hazara Militia and the anti-Taliban
Northern Alliance, which both the CIA and
Iran had supplied for years, to support the
U.S. operation. The Wikipedia entry
for the
2001 uprising in Herat lists U.S.
General Tommy Franks and General Qassem
Soleimani as allied commanders.
The collaboration ended in 2002 after
George W. Bush named Iran as a member of his
"Axis
of Evil".
In 2015 the U.S. and Iran again
collaborated. This time to defeat ISIS in
Iraq. During the battle to liberate Tikrit
the U.S. air force flew in support of
General Soleimani's ground forces.
Newsweek
reported at that time:
While western nations, including the
U.S., were slow to react to ISIS's march
across northern Iraq, Soleimani was
quick to play a more public role in
Tehran's efforts to tackle the terror
group. For example, the commander was
seen in pictures with militiamen in the
northern Iraqi town of Amerli when it
was recaptured from ISIS last September.
...
Top U.S. general Martin Dempsey has said
that the involvement of Iran in the
fight against ISIS in Iraq could be a
positive step, as long as the situation
does not descend into sectarianism,
because of fears surrounding how Shia
militias may treat the remaining Sunni
population of Tikrit if it is
recaptured. The military chief also
claimed that almost two thirds of the
30,000 offensive were Iranian-backed
militiamen, meaning that without
Iranian assistance and Soleimani's
guidance, the offensive on Tikrit may
not have been possible.
It is deplorable that U.S. media and
politicians blame Soleimani for U.S.
casualties during the invasion of Iraq. Shia
groups caused only 17% of all U.S.
casualties and fought, like the Sadr
Brigades, without support from Iran. There
are also revived claims that Iran provided
the Iraqi resistance with Explosive Formed
Penetrators used in roadside bombs. But that
claim had been proven to be was false more
than 12 years ago.
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The "EFP from Iran" story
was
part of a U.S. PSYOPS campaign to
explain away the real reason why it was
losing the war. There were dozens of reports
which proved that the EFPs were manufactured
in Iraq and there
never was
any evidence that Iran delivered weapons
or anything else to the Iraqi resistance:
Britain, whose forces have had
responsibility for security in
southeastern Iraq since the war began,
has found nothing to support the
Americans' contention that Iran is
providing weapons and training in Iraq,
several senior military officials said.
"I have not myself seen any evidence
-- and I don't think any evidence exists
-- of government-supported or
instigated" armed support on Iran's part
in Iraq, British Defense Secretary Des
Browne said in an interview in Baghdad
in late August.
Iran is
not responsible for the U.S. casualties
in Iraq. George W. Bush is. What made
Soleimani "bad" in the eyes of the U.S. was
his support for the resistance against the
Zionist occupation of Palestine. It was
Israel that wanted him 'removed'. The media
explanations for Trump's decision fail to
explain that point.
The New York Times reported
yesterday that Trump picked
the 'wrong' item from a list of possible
courses of action that the military had
presented him. That sounded like bullshit
invented to take blame away from Trump and
to put it onto the military.
The Washington Post reports
today that the idea to kill Soleimani
came from Secretary of State Pompeo:
Pompeo first spoke with Trump about
killing Soleimani months ago, said a
senior U.S. official, but neither the
president nor Pentagon officials were
willing to countenance such an
operation.
...
[This time o]ne significant factor was
the “lockstep” coordination for the
operation between Pompeo and Esper, both
graduates in the same class at the U.S.
Military Academy, who deliberated ahead
of the briefing with Trump, senior U.S.
officials said. Pence also endorsed the
decision, but he did not attend the
meeting in Florida.
It is possible that the report is correct
but it sounds more like an arranged story to
blame Pompeo for the bad consequences
Trump's decision will have.
During his election campaign Trump
did not even know (vid) who Soleimani
was.
Someone indoctrinated him. The idea to
assassinate Soleimani came most likely from
Netanyahoo and must have been planted into
Trump's head quite a while ago. Israel could
have killed Soleimani several times while he
was openly traveling in Syria. It shied away
from doing that as it (rightly) feared the
consequences. Now the U.S. will have to
endure them.
The consequences continue to pile up.
The decision by the Iraqi government and
parliament to kick all foreign troops out of
the country leaves some flexibility in the
timeline. The U.S. and other military are in
Iraq
under simple agreements that were
exchanged between the Iraqi Foreign Ministry
and the other sides. The ministry can
fulfill the parliament decision by simply
writing letters that declare that the
agreements end next week. It could also
choose to wait until the end of the year.
But Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi has
publicly declared that he can no longer
guarantee the security of foreign troops on
Iraqi ground. That makes the issue urgent
and it is likely that the troops will leave
rather soon.
Trump did not like the idea and
threatened Iraq with sanctions:
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One,
the U.S. president said: “If they do ask
us to leave, if we don’t do it in a very
friendly basis, we will charge them
sanctions like they’ve never seen before
ever. It’ll make Iranian sanctions look
somewhat tame.”
“We have a very extraordinarily
expensive air base that’s there. It cost
billions of dollars to build. Long
before my time. We’re not leaving unless
they pay us back for it,” Trump said.
The president added that “If there’s
any hostility, that they do anything we
think is inappropriate, we are going to
put sanctions on Iraq, very big
sanctions on Iraq.”
There are also some 2,900 Twitter bots
who
try to let the parliament decision look
illegitimate by tweeting "I am Iraqi and
parliament doesn't represent me". It is not
known if these are Saudi or U.S. bots but
their behavior is inauthentic.
There is nothing Trump can do to keep the
troops in Iraq. If the Iraqi government does
not tell them to leave the Popular Militia
Forces will attack the U.S. bases and evict
the U.S. military by force. When the U.S.
assassinated Soleimani and PMU leader
al-Muhandis it made that step inevitable.
Yesterday Iran took a decision to exceed
the number of centrifuges that are allowed
to run under the JCPOA nuclear agreement
which the U.S. has left. The decision had
been expected and the Soleimani
assassination only accelerated it. Iran took
the step
under §36 of the agreement which allows
Iran to exceed the limits if the other sides
of the JCPOA do not stick to their
commitments. That means that Iran is still
within the JCPOA and that the step is
reversible. The IAEA will continue to have
access to Iran's sites and will continue to
report regularly about Iran's civil nuclear
program.
The JCPOA co-signers France, the UK and
Germany issued a very
unhelpful statement today that puts all
blame on Iran and does not even mention the
U.S. assassinations of Soleimani.
Iran has not announced what kind of
operation it will use to avenge the death of
its national hero Qassem Soleimani. It will
likely be
some asymmetrical operation against the
U.S. military somewhere around the globe. It
will certainly be a big one.
Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah, a dear
friend of Soleimani, announced yesterday
that the Resistance Axis will take its own,
separate revenge.
bigger
Here are edited excerpts from Nasrallah's
rather
long speech (which is worth reading in
full):
Today we commemorate Soleimani and
al-Muhandis, two great commanders, and
their Iraqi and Iranian companions who
were martyred in this recent crime. The
date of Soleimani's assassination is an
inflection point in the history of the
region, not just for Iran or Iraq.
It is a new beginning.
...
Soleimani's assassination isn't an
isolated incident. It's the beginning of
new American approach to the region. The
U.S. carefully weighed what move they
could take to reverse all their previous
failures. But this wasn't war with Iran.
Trump knows war with Iran would
be difficult and dangerous. So,
what could they do that wouldn't lead to
war with Iran? They settled on killing
Qassem Soleimani, a central figure in
the Resistance Axis.
...
Qassem Soleimani was the glue that held
the Resistance Axis together, and so
they decided to kill him, and to kill
him openly, which would also have its
psychological impact.
...
Our responsibility in the Resistance
Axis is divided into three points.
- Trump's goal was to terrify us
all, and subjugate us. The
leadership of Resistance will not
waver or back down at all. To the
contrary, the martyrdom of Soleimani
and Muhandis will only drive us
forward.
- Resistance must coordinate and
become closer, to strengthen itself
and its capabilities, because the
region is heading toward a new
phase.
- In terms of response, we have to
consider just punishment. In terms
of this crime, the one who committed
it is known, and must be punished.
Soleimani isn't just an Iranian
matter, he is all of the Resistance Axis
- Palestine, Lebanon Syria, Yemen,
Afghanistan, and every country which has
supporter and lover of Resistance. The
umma. This isn't an Iranian issue alone.
Iran can also respond as it pleases, but
that response doesn't exempt the
Resistance Axis from also responding.
Iran won't ask you to do anything - to
act or not to act. But Resistance Axis
forces must decide how to deal with
Soleimani's death.
So, if any Resistance Axis faction
avenges his death, that their decision,
and Iran isn't behind that. Iran won't
ask anything. It's up to us how to
respond. Do we content ourselves with
mourning and eulogizing? We must all
head towards just punishment.
What do we mean by just punishment?
Some are saying this must be someone of
the same level as Qassem Soleimani -
like Chairman of Joint Chiefs, head of
@CENTCOM, but there is no one on
Soleimani or Muhandis' level.
Soleimani's shoe is worth more than
Trump's head, so there's no one I can
point to to say this is the person we
can target.
Just punishment therefore
means American military presence in the
region, U.S. military bases, U.S.
military ships, every American officer
and soldier in our countries and
regions. The U.S. military is the one
who killed Soleimani and Muhandis, and
they will pay the price. This is the
equation.
I want to be very clear, we
do not mean American citizens or
nationals. There are many
Americans in our region. We don't mean
to attack them, and it is wrong to harm
them. Attacking US civilians anywhere
serves Trump's interests.
The American military institution put
itself in the midst of battle by
carrying out the assassination.
There are those who will say I'm
blowing things out of proportion. I'm
not. I'm seeing it as it is. We won't
accept our region, its holy places, and
natural resources to be handed over to
the Zionists.
If the resistance axis heads in this
direction, the Americans will leave our
region, humiliated, defeated, and
terrified. The suicide martyrs who
forced the US out of the region before
remain. If our region's peoples head in
this direction - when the coffins of of
U.S. soldiers and officers - they
arrived vertically, and will return
horizontally - Trump and his admin will
know they lost the region, and will lose
the elections.
The response to the blood of
Soleimani and Al-Muhandis must be
expulsion of all U.S, forces from the
region. When we accomplish this
goal, the liberation of Palestine will
become imminent. When US forces leave
the region, these Zionists will pack
their bags and leave, and might not need
a battle with Israel.
General Esmail Qaani, Soleimani's
replacement as commander of the Quds
Brigade, endorsed Nasrallah's proposal:
Going Underground on RT @Underground_RT
-
00:14 UTC · Jan 6, 2020
Esmail Qaani, the new leader of
Iran's IRGC Quds Force:
"Our promise is to continue the path of
martyr Soleimani. Due to the
martyrdom of #Soleimani, our promise
will be the expulsion of the US from the
region in different steps."
These are not empty threats but a
military project that will play out over the
next years. I would not bet on the U.S. as
the winner of that war.
There were
millions of Iranians in the streets of
Tehran today to mourn Qassem Soleimani. The
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei
shed tears while reciting the funeral prayer
(vid). As Ayatollah Khomeini once
said: “They call us a nation of tears,
but with these tears we overthrew an
empire.”
Fereshteh Sadeghi فرشته صادقی
@fresh_sadegh -
5:15 UTC · Jan 6, 2020
I was given this poster tonight by 2
young men next to a stand that offered
tea and dates to motorists (dates as a
sign of mourning in Iran), I want to
stick it on my car’s rear window. It
reads: A world will avenge you, with
hashtag #crushing_response
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There will be hundreds of thousands of
volunteers should Iran need them to avenge
Soleimani. That is why we predicted that the
U.S. will
come to regret its evil deed.
And while the situation can be
reasonably compared to the build up to
the war on Iraq I do not see a war
happening. Wars are very risky as the enemy
gets a vote. Any war with Iran would likely
cost ten thousands of U.S. casualties. Trump
is probably not stupid enough to launch such
a war and certainly not during an election
year.
During his campaign Trump said he wanted
the U.S. military out of the Middle East.
Iran and its allies will help him to keep
that promise.
This article was originally published
by "Moon
Of Alabama" -
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