The President has called Iran the “world’s top terrorist” but, if a state-actor like Iran that uses force is now to be considered a terrorist then Donald Trump’s America would be terrorist #1, as it has destroyed far more than Tehran could dream of.
Like the crucial steps toward public acceptance preceding the U.S. invasions of Vietnam and Iraq, the assassination of Qassem Soleimani was aimed at building popular support for war on Iran. Not only the justification, but the assassination itself were part of a broader strategy to grease the skids into war.
The Soleimani ploy has apparently failed, however, thanks to the carefully prepared Iranian response, which did not provoke Donald Trump to raise the stakes further. At least not yet.
Press TV – January 11, 2020 The 120-member nations of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) have strongly opposed Washington’s refusal to issue Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif a visa to attend an upcoming United Nations Security Council meeting. The NAM countries voiced their opposition to the US move in a statement on Saturday by citing […]
Iran will send the black box of the Ukrainian plane which it accidentally downed to France, officials said Saturday.
Today, Iran is acknowledging they unintentionally shot down the plane.I'm glad they are taking responsibility for this error. It's the right thing to do.Obviously, there are many unanswered questions. A few I'm asking..Why was this plane in flight considering all that had occurred? Why did the plane turn around, as has been reported? Why deviate from planned course? And who was jamming communications?
Why doesn’t the U.S. respect the decision made by the Iraqi Parliament and move out of Iraqi territory? The short answer is, because the US doesn’t respect anybody’s – any country’s – decision or sovereignty, as long as it doesn’t meet their objectives.
Now, the US is steadfast and will not leave the region. Already President Assad has requested that the US leave Syrian territory. They didn’t. The stakes are too immense for the US. It has all to do with their move towards world hegemony by territory and by finance – meaning by the US dollar.
David Brooks, one of the New York Times' in-house conservatives, yesterday: "Donald Trump is impulse-driven, ignorant, narcissistic and intellectually dishonest." Yes, he's right and most Americans know it and agree with it, but none of that is really anything that's impeachable. Ted Lieu's one minute speech on the House floor Thursday (above) should be part-- a big part-- of the Trump impeachment trial... but it won't be. If there even is a trial.
War? Iran knows it will get crushed militarily, Trump knows he’d be crushed politically, and Iraq still needs us around.
Peter VAN BUREN
History will judge the long-term impact of the death of Qassem Soleimani. In the short-to-medium term, let’s step back from the fear-mongering and instead focus on the geopolitical factors that make the large-scale war many fear unlikely.
Throughout his military command of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ elite Quds Force, the late Major General Qassem Soleimani ensured that Iran had as its disposal an intricate network of military proxy forces, sympathetic Shi’a Islamic faithful, and armed wings of foreign political and religious allies prepared to respond to an American and/or Israeli military attack.
