Hands up, all who heard of Qasem Soleimani before his assassination last week ordered by President Donald Trump!
Hands up, anybody who knows what Soleimani did to incur the wrath of the US President?
Thought so, not a single hand in sight!
The world stands at the edge of a major new Middle East conflict, possibly even developing into World War III, because a military leader who ordinary folk in the west never heard of was blown to death.
To put not too fine a point on it, something, somewhere, is very wrong. The western world does not explode into conflict over a man nobody ever heard of. Or does it?
There is a dangerous brand of leadership now dominating global politics.
Since Soleimani’s execution/ assassination/murder – call it what you will – we who never heard of him before now know he was a ruthless commander, number two only to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Soleimani was said by Trump to be responsible for the deaths of thousands of American soldiers and was preparing to target more.
Research shows that he orchestrated countless heinous crimes against civilian populations across the Middle East.
In Syria, he was instrumental in the bombing and torture of peaceful protesters who dared to stand up to the country’s dictator Bashar al-Assad, a man who gassed his own people.
In Lebanon, Iraq, and in his own country of Iran, Soleimani led an authoritarian crackdown on pro-democracy campaigners who championed the democratic rights and freedoms that threaten the power base of dictators everywhere.
While so few of us had heard of him, he operated for nearly two decades in the shadows, and obviously built himself a powerful enough base to be regarded by the west as a terrorist.
Why wasn’t he eliminated long ago for his brutality?
There is widening suspicion that Trump’s timing for the assassination appeared to be swayed more in his own political and personal interests than by destabilisation in the Gulf region.
In a presidential election year in which he faces impeachment proceedings Trump is badly in need of a morale booster.
Many Republicans support his attack on Soleimani, but Democrats and interests outside America fear the Trump administration is already in danger of losing control of the swift chain reaction and political storm unleashed by the killing of the general.
Millions openly mourn in Iran, and there appears to be no long-term strategy to head off Iranian reprisals, apart from Trump’s belligerent tweets.
They include warning of attacks on cultural sites that might endanger civilians and would likely be considered a war crime.
A rapid de-escalation of the threat to international peace is required.
Unfortunately, with Iranians demanding vengeance and a dangerous leadership in the White House, a reckless assassination decision may have increased, not decreased, the risk to peace.
