Above: Quds Day rally, Parade of military forces, along with photographs of Qasem Soleimani, Iran Tehran, May 31, 2019. Saaediex from
Note: This act of war by the United States is pushing the region into another chaotic and destructive war.
This attack was carried out at the direction of Donald Trump according to press reports:
“The US armed forces carried out on Friday airstrikes in Baghdad to kill Commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, at the direction of President Donald Trump, the Department of Defense said. ‘At the direction of the President, the U.S. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force…,’ the Pentagon said in a statement.”
The Trump administration’s and Pentagon’s actions could easily start a war with Iran, which could become a regional conflict very quickly. If Iran assassinated a top US general and bragged about it, the US would react with a full-scale attack on Iran. Trump violated the US Constitution and international law. Iran’s leadership has promised a response. An attack on a US military target would be seen as an equal response to this assassination. Our hope is Iran is restrained and uses international law to hold Donald Trump and everyone involved in this illegal act accountable.
People in the United States need to respond by demanding no war, that the US get out of Iraq, Syria and the Middle East, and stop the illegal unilateral coercive measures against Iran and more than 30 countries. It is time for the US to obey international law and stop its global gangsterism foreign policy.
Join us on Saturday, January 4 in a national day of action calling for the US to get out of Iraq and the Middle East. This action is more essential after this escalation of conflict by Donald Trump brings the region to the brink of war. KZ
Iran hawks have been agitating for open conflict with Iran for years. Tonight, the Trump administration obliged them by assassinating the top IRGC-Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani and the head of Kata’ib Hezbollah in a drone strike in Baghdad:
Hard to understate how big this is
• Qassem Suleimani is Iran’s most powerful mil figure in Region
• He runs Iran’s proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq
• Both men designated by US as Terrorist
• Muhandis was at US embassy attack protest, calls himself “Suleimani soldier”— Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) January 3, 2020
Hard to understate how big this is
• Qassem Suleimani is Iran’s most powerful mil figure in Region
• He runs Iran’s proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq
• Both men designated by US as Terrorist
• Muhandis was at US embassy attack protest, calls himself “Suleimani soldier”— Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) January 3, 2020
The gravity of this moment in US-Iran relations can not be overstated. Gen. Sulaimani was the brain of the Islamic Republic, at once revered & feared and a regional folk hero for supporters across the region.
Iran sees his assassination as a declaration of war.#Iran #Iraq— Farnaz Fassihi (@farnazfassihi) January 3, 2020
Our collective story on the killing of Gen. Sulaimani in #Iraq. Lots of context & info here on who he was, what he did, what this means & where it may lead.#Iranhttps://t.co/MAtTwlIAnm
— Farnaz Fassihi (@farnazfassihi) January 3, 2020
Reuters reports that a spokesman for the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq also confirmed the deaths:
Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force, and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis were killed late on Thursday in an air strike on their convoy in Baghdad airport, an Iraqi militia spokesman told Reuters.
Soleimani is a senior Iranian military commander, and he also happens to be one of the more popular public figures inside Iran. Killing him isn’t just a major escalation that guarantees reprisals and further destabilizes the region, but it also strengthens hard-liners in Iran enormously. Trump claimed not to want war with Iran, but his actions have proven that he does. No one who wants to avoid war with Iran would order the assassination of a high-ranking Iranian officer. Trump has signaled his willingness to plunge the U.S. into a new war that will be disastrous for our country, Iran, and the entire region. American soldiers, diplomats, and citizens throughout the region are all in much greater danger tonight than they were this morning, and the president is responsible for that.
It is hard to convey how irrational and destructive this latest action is. The U.S. and Iran have been dangerously close to war for months, but the Trump administration has made no effort to deescalate tensions. All that it would take to push the two governments over the brink into open conflict is a reckless attack that the other side cannot ignore. Now the U.S. has launched just such an attack and dared Iran to respond. The response may not come immediately, but we have to assume that it is coming. Killing Soleimani means that the IRGC will presumably consider it open season on U.S. forces all across the region. The Iran obsession has led the U.S. into a senseless new war that it could have easily avoided, and Trump and the Iran hawks own the results.
Trump supporters have often tried to defend the president’s poor foreign policy record by saying that he hadn’t started any new wars. Well, now he has, and he will be responsible for the consequences to follow.
Daniel Larison is a senior editor at TAC, where he also keeps a solo blog. He has been published in the New York Times Book Review, Dallas Morning News, World Politics Review, Politico Magazine, Orthodox Life, Front Porch Republic, The American Scene, and Culture11, and was a columnist for The Week. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Chicago, and resides in Lancaster, PA. Follow him on Twitter.