Tag Archives: Iran

US Kick Starts Raging ’20s Declaring War on Iran, by Pepe Escobar

Posted on January 5, 2020 | Leave a comment

The assassination of Qassem Soleimani is probably the end of the US empire, Southwest Asia branch. From Pepe Escobar at consortiumnews.com:

Iraq is the preferred battleground of a proxy war against Iran that may now metastasize into hot war, with devastating consequences.

It does not matter where the green light for the U.S. targeted assassination in Baghdad of Quds Force commander Major General Qassem Soleimani and the Hashd al-Shaabi second-in-command Abu Madhi al-Muhandis came from.

This is an act of war. Unilateral, unprovoked and illegal.

President Donald Trump may have issued the order. The U.S. Deep State may have ordered him to issue the order. Or the usual suspects may have ordered them all.

According to my best Southwest Asia intel sources, “Israel gave the U.S. the coordinates for the assassination of Qassem Soleimani as they wanted to avoid the repercussions of taking the assassination upon themselves.”

It does not matter that Trump and the Deep State are at war.

One of the very few geopolitical obsessions that unite them is non-stop confrontation with Iran – qualified by the Pentagon as one of five top threats against the U.S., almost at the level of Russia and China.

And there cannot be a more startling provocation against Iran — in a long list of sanctions and provocations — than what just happened in Baghdad. Iraq is now the preferred battleground of a proxy war against Iran that may now metastasize into hot war, with devastating consequences.

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A Dubious Official Story Masks the True Motives Behind the Soleimani Assassination, by Whitney Webb

Posted on January 4, 2020 | Leave a comment

Israel has long wanted Qassem Soleimani dead, and is often the case, they got the US to do its dirty work. We can be fairly certain that the US will also bear the brunt of Iran’s inevitable retaliation. From Whitney Webb at mintpressnews.com:

Behind the official yet dubious justifications for the U.S. airstrike that killed a top Iranian general on Friday lies a confluence of factors — some decades in the making, others more recent — that are pushing the U.S. towards yet another catastrophic war in the Middle East.

BAGHDAD — The recent assassination of Iran’s most popular and well-known general, Qassem Soleimani, has stoked fears that a new war pitting the U.S. and its allies against Iran could soon become a devastating and deadly reality. The airstrike that killed Soleimani, conducted by the U.S. in Baghdad, was conducted without the authorization or even prior notification of the U.S. Congress and without the approval of Iraq’s government or military, making the attack flagrantly illegal on multiple levels. The attack also killed Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was an advisor to Soleimani.

“The assassination of an Iraqi military commander who holds an official position is considered aggression on Iraq … and the liquidation of leading Iraqi figures or those from a brotherly country on Iraqi soil is a massive breach of sovereignty,” Iraq’s Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said of the attack, adding that the assassination was “a dangerous escalation that will light the fuse of a destructive war in Iraq, the region, and the world.”

Notably, the assassination of Soleimani comes just a few months after an alleged Israeli attempt to kill the Iranian general failed and amid a well-documented and decades-long push by U.S. neoconservatives and Israeli officials for a U.S.-led war with Iran.

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Murder INC. by Eric Margolis

Posted on January 4, 2020 | Leave a comment

A succinct but insightful analysis of the implications of the assassination of Qassam Soleimani, from Eric Margolis at lewrockwell.com:

The US drone strike at Baghdad airport that killed Iran’s top commander, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, and a senior leader of Iraq’s Shia militia, has set the Mideast on fire.  The Trump administration, which authorized the assassination, called it a ’pre-emptive’ strike.  Iran branded it ‘outright murder.’

Soleimani was Iran’s second most powerful figure and a national icon.  He headed up the Quds Force, the elite branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, a key player in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and the Gulf region.   Soleimani was also the most capable, intelligent and effective military leader in a region of third rate generals.

The 62-year-old general distinguished himself in the long Iraq-Iran War, the dirty war in Lebanon, and operations in Iraq.  He played a key role in defeating the ultra-radical Islamic State movement in Iraq, working in tandem with the US.  Soleimani helped turn the tide of battle in Syria, saving the regime of Bashar Assad.

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The USA Doubles Down on Its Saudi Allegiance, by Craig Murray

Posted on January 4, 2020 | Leave a comment

Iraq will be a focal point in the US war on Shia Islam. If it insists on staying after Iraq asks it to leave, Iraq and Iran Shia militias will wage guerrilla war that will make the US presence a living hell. If the US leaves Iraq, it will greatly upset Trump’s buddies in Israel and the American Jewish community. Perhaps he should let the Israelis fight their own wars, but that’s not going to happen. From Craig Murray at antiwar.com:

For the United States to abandon proxy warfare and directly kill one of Iran’s most senior political figures has changed international politics in a fundamental way. It is a massive error. Its ramifications are profound and complex.

There is also a lesson to be learned here in that this morning there will be excitement and satisfaction in the palaces of Washington, Tel Aviv, Riyadh and Tehran. All of the political elites will see prospects for gain from the new fluidity. While for ordinary people in all those countries there is only the certainty of more conflict, death and economic loss, for the political elite, the arms manufacturers, the military and security services and allied interests, the hedge funds, speculators and oil companies, there are the sweet smells of cash and power.

Tehran will be pleased because the USA has just definitively lost Iraq. Iraq has a Shia majority and so naturally tends to ally with Iran. The only thing preventing that was the Arab nationalism of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath Socialist Party. Bush and Blair were certainly fully informed that by destroying the BA’ath system they were creating an Iranian/Iraqi nexus, but they decided that was containable. The “containment” consisted of a deliberate and profound push across the Middle East to oppose Shia influence in proxy wars everywhere.

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The Donald Is Now America First’s Own Assassin, by David Stockman

Posted on January 4, 2020 | Leave a comment

Every country the US has invaded since 2001 has cost the US blood and treasure, left the invaded country far worse off, and created refugees and terrorist blowback. However, war with Iran would undoubtedly take the cake. From David Stockman at antiwar.com:

By the twisted logic of Imperial Washington you could say the Iranians were asking for it. After all, they had the nerve to locate their country right in the middle of 35 U.S. military bases!

Then again, your saner angels may ask: What in the hell is Washington doing with a massive military footprint in a region and in a string of backwater countries that have virtually no bearing on homeland security, safety and liberty?

Djibouti? Oman? Kyrgyzstan? Uzbekistan? Afghanistan? Bahrain? Kuwait? And, yes, Iraq and Iran?

In fact, Washington destroyed the former for no good reason and based on egregious Big Lies about Saddam’s nonexistent WMDs and sheltering of al-Qaeda. That turned Iraq into a failed state hellhole pulsating with sectarian frictions and anti-American grievances – even as the rump state of Iraq centered in Baghdad fell under the control of Iran-friendly Shiite politicians and militias.

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Inside the plot by Iran’s Soleimani to attack U.S. forces in Iraq, by Reuters staff

Posted on January 4, 2020 | Leave a comment

Just so you have it, here’s the party line on the Soleimani murder, from Reuters at reuters.com:

(Reuters) – In mid-October, Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani met with his Iraqi Shi’ite militia allies at a villa on the banks of the Tigris River, looking across at the U.S. embassy complex in Baghdad.

The Revolutionary Guards commander instructed his top ally in Iraq, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and other powerful militia leaders to step up attacks on U.S. targets in the country using sophisticated new weapons provided by Iran, two militia commanders and two security sources briefed on the gathering told Reuters.

The strategy session, which has not been previously reported, came as mass protests against Iran’s growing influence in Iraq were gaining momentum, putting the Islamic Republic in an unwelcome spotlight. Soleimani’s plans to attack U.S. forces aimed to provoke a military response that would redirect that rising anger toward the United States, according to the sources briefed on the gathering, Iraqi Shi’ite politicians and government officials close to Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi.

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U.S. Will Come To Regret Its Assassination of Qassim Soleimani, by Moon of Alabama

Posted on January 4, 2020 | Leave a comment

The Iranians and Iraqis will undoubtedly retaliate for the assassinations of Qassim Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandes. If those two nations believe the US is spearheading a war against Shia Islam at the behest of Israel and Saudi Arabia who can blame them? From Moon of Alabama at moonofalabama.org:

Today the U.S. declared war on Iran and Iraq.

War is what it will get.

Earlier today a U.S. drone or helicopter killed Major General Qassim Soleimani, the famous commander of the Iranian Quds (‘Jerusalem’) force, while he left the airport of Baghdad where he had just arrived. He had planned to attend the funeral of the 31 Iraqi soldiers the U.S. had killed on December 29 at the Syrian-Iraqi border near Al-Qaim.


The Quds force is the external arm of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Soleiman was responsible for all relations between Iran and political and militant movements outside of Iran. Hajji Qassim advised the Lebanese Hisbullah during the 2006 war against Israel. His support for Iraqi groups enabled them to kick the U.S. invaders out of Iraq. He was the man responsible for, and successful in, defeating the Islamic State in iraq and Syria. In 2015 Soleimani traveled to Moscow and convinced Russia to intervene in Syria. His support for the Houthi in Yemen enabled them to withstand the Saudi attackers.

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Trump’s Point of No Return, by Tom Luongo

Posted on January 4, 2020 | Leave a comment

The Middle East is reverting to form: Shia versus Sunni, with the latter joined by the US and Israel. Iran has been the main beneficiary of US intervention since 20o1, look for the Iranians to turn this latest attack to their advantage as well. And look for Iraq to try to kick the US of Iraq. From Tom Luongo at tomluongo.me:

When I wrote that the coup against President Trump had morphed into a Civil War, I wasn’t kidding. The sham impeachment created the perfect environment for the Democrats and Republicans to get something definitive from him by playing the House and the Senate off each other.

With the Senate Neocon Occupied Territory the escalation of belligerence since Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed through the impeachment vote has been serious.

First, there was the rider to the NDAA which upped the sanctions on everyone willing to work on Nordstream 2. Then Lindsey Graham pushed the frankly insane DASKA bill through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Pelosi forced her impeachment vote through the House on partisan lines. Then, clearly overstepping her authority, she refused to send the Articles to the Senate hoping to add a more serious charge, like Obstruction of Justice or Treason for laundering Russian money through Deutsche Bank.

It is under these circumstances we should view the events in Iraq over the last week, especially the killing of IRGC Quds Forces Commander Qassem Solemaini.

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Impeachment Is a Distraction: Heavily Scripted Vote Demonstrates That Democracy Really Is Dead, by Philip Giraldi

Posted on December 27, 2019 | Leave a comment

The only good thing about the House’s impeachment farce was that it couldn’t pass legislation during the representatives’ bloviations. From Philip Giraldi at strategic-culture.com:

Watching the impeachment “vote” was hard work. With only a few exceptions, each Congressman rose for roughly 90 seconds and provided a prearranged, almost completely scripted-along-party-lines explanation of how he or she was casting one’s ballot. After four grueling hours of hearing self-serving lies like “no one is above the law,” I was hoping that one of them would either fall off the podium and fracture a leg or actually go mad and break out into a song and dance routine. The entire performance was the strongest possible argument for term limits that is possible to make.

However, one of the more truly interesting aspects of the proceedings was the Democratic Party view of Russia, which was cited constantly. According to most of the Democrats, Russian meddling was the decisive element in getting Donald Trump elected, and many of them also believe that there was collusion between the GOP candidate and President Vladimir Putin. It is a viewpoint that is totally at odds with the facts, even if one actually believes that there was a meeting in the Kremlin at which a malevolent Putin instructed his myrmidons to “get Hillary.” Slippery Adam Schiff, he of the intelligence committee, carefully referred to Russia as an adversary but many other Democrats kept using the word “enemy.”

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The Christmas Truce of 1914 – Why There Is Still No Peace On Earth, by David Stockman

Posted on December 25, 2019 | Leave a comment

The dissolution of the USSR in 1991 presented the US with a golden opportunity to dramatically reduce military spending and to promote peace. George H.W. Bush blew that opportunity. From David Stockman at davidstockmanscontracorner.com via lewrockwell.com:

After the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989 and the death of the Soviet Union was confirmed two years later when Boris Yeltsin courageously stood down the Red Army tanks in front of Moscow’s White House, a dark era in human history came to an end.

The world had descended into a 77-Year War, incepting with the mobilization of the armies of old Europe in August 1914. If you want to count bodies, 150 million were killed by all the depredations that germinated in the Great War, its foolish aftermath at Versailles, and the march of history into World War II and the Cold War that followed inexorably thereupon.

Upwards of 8% of the human race was wiped out during that span. The toll encompassed the madness of trench warfare during 1914-1918; the murderous regimes of Soviet and Nazi totalitarianism that rose from the ashes of the Great War and Versailles; and then the carnage of WWII and all the lesser (unnecessary) wars and invasions of the Cold War including Korea and Vietnam.

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