With a gentleman I am always a gentleman and a half, and with a fraud I try to be a fraud and a half. ~ Otto von Bismarck
The US hustle on who has been destabilizing the Mideast via terrorism has gone unchallenged far too long. We listened to the mantra of the Pentagon and Pompeo blaming it all on Iran with no evidence forthcoming, and finally realized that no evidence would ever be forthcoming.
I come from the baby boomer generation when we had the Cuban missile crisis seared into our memory with America’s UN ambassador showing the U-2 photo of the Russian missiles launch, followed by more photos of missiles openly being transported on ships photographed at low altitude. Americans were proud of a military that not only was protecting us but told us the truth, at that time.
Today, many Americans are not so sure, and many others are sure that their government is lying to them to support a foreign policy they never would if they knew the truth. There is an important segment of our security apparatus that feel no qualms whatsoever about running a psyop on our own people, the kind of operation saved for use on actual enemies.
What did we do to be treated in such a cavalier manner, including a having a Secretary of Defense that has a temporary designation because that avoided a Senate confirmation process where they are carefully screened by both parties?
Soleimani worked with the US early on after 9-11 in Afghanistan chasing after Osama bin Laden, as al-Qaeda was considered a threat to Iran at the time. Not one in a thousand Americans know this, including a vast majority in the US military.
Iraq was a different story, even more so after General Wesley Clark, with his impeccable credentials, told us that a form staffer member briefed him on how chasing the terrorism bogeyman was a smokescreen for taking over seven Mideast countries in five years.
Fast forward to one of Pompeo’s early justifications for the drone attack at the Baghdad airport, claiming that Soleimani was planning imminent attacks, a story that fell apart after a few days. Pentagon second tier staff scrambled to put the terror stink on Soleimani and came up with the story of his being responsible for the death of American troops during the Iraqi war.
Left out of their story was the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel history of sponsoring MEK and terrorism inside Iran, including attacks on its judiciary and parliament. Because MEK had fought for Saddam in the Iran-Iraq War, he later provided them infrastructure inside Iraq to continue operations against Iran. When Saddam was taken out, the US, meaning our military, took over running the MEK operation against Iran, with the above confirmation from General Clark.
That put US military personnel inside Iraq on the target list for counter-terrorism attacks under Article 51 of the UN charter for self-defense, where anyone assisting in supporting such attacks is fair game for retaliation.
Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security.
It is no secret that the US, with NATO partner assistance, and its Gulf State coalition, supported a huge proxy terrorism operation against Syria and other targeted countries. Iraq took its turn at tremendous suffering and loss of life, and now Yemen.
The former Qatari FM admitted on American TV that $160 billion was spent by the US coalition trying to Balkanize Syria, and “that mistakes were made in some of the groups we supported”. The terrorism Soleimani was involved in was “counter-terrorism” against the US coalition supported terror groups, and hence why he was hated.
The Iranians are understandably angry about the Soleimani assassination, but their anger has clouded their media judgement. I have seen over and over their publicizing that Soleimani and PMU commander Mahid were killed “with others”. That is a big mistake because that is not what happened.
General Soleimani and his top staff were assassinated, as were General Madi and his top staff, and those were not “others”. The US attack was a joint command structure decapitation, a much more aggressive event than killing two commanders. The Iranian military spokesmen let this distinction slip their fingers in their media response, but they did do so in their military response.
Under Article 51 the Iran executed a retaliatory command structure attack of their own on the US Ayn al-Assad base, but even going so far as to give a two hour warning to prime minster Mahdi in Baghdad. Trump’s statement that “everything is okay, no casualties and damage” was believed by few. Even with the base command inside a hardened bunker, a direct hit with a ballistic missile is a life changing event.
Mr. Trump played Mr. Silly again at his press conference mention of some troops being treated for ‘headaches”. Sure, the Pentagon flies troops all the way to Germany to be give two aspirins “out of an abundance of caution” for headaches. This is one of the stupidest things ever said by an American President. That lie did not last a day, and at long last we see some American vets get off their behinds and raise hell to state that traumatic brain injuries are not “headaches”.
To lie to the American people like this, by Trump, Pompeo, and Esper… is to be expected. Its how those guys roll. But for the downstream staff to remain mute like a bunch of stuffed dummies is a bridge too far.
US veteran organizations do some great work. The Vietnam vets where horribly treated, having to fight tooth and nail for benefits they deserved served on a silver platter. They were followed by those with Gulf War syndrome, which the military denied even existed, just like it did with Agent Orange. My brother’s widow, a retired Army Ranger colonel when he died, still draws his Agent Orange pension.
However, there is one huge issue the Vet orgs have not done so well on, and that is protecting those who take the oath and wear the uniform from being sent on a “bad mission”, a Deep State concocted, made up war.
If there is any group that should be suspicious of the command structure and the military industrial complex motives, it is the veterans. Two thousand of them recently piled onto the Washington Post’s forum to disclose another bad mission in Afghanistan with their own personal witness stories.
Understanding the depravity of waging war for deep state gain requires an even more subtle understanding. With the US up to it eyeballs in using proxy terrorism for regime change wars, in what Pompeo loves to describe as “pursuing our interests”, the military people in direct support of this are hanging targets on our troops as legitimate counter-terrorism targets under international law.
Those wearing the uniform cannot buck the command structure. Only the veterans organizations could lead the way to protect the troops now exposed, and I don’t think they will. They have been provided an opportunity with the Soleimani incident, to review their position. They have a second chance.
We just killed Iran’s George Washington and JFK, claiming he was a terrorist, when he was fighting our own terror operations. Soleimani saved a lot of lives in Syria and Iraq, but only after way too many innocent people were killed purely for the regime change gangsters “pursuing their interests”.
When are we going to wake up to what we have done, for whom, and do what needs to be done to make amends before more lives are thrown away on cheap lies?
Jim W. Dean, managing editor for Veterans Today, producer/host of Heritage TV Atlanta, specially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
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