America’s Lawless Arrogance Has Gone Too Far with the Assassination of Iran’s Top Military Commander, by Finian Cunningham + Why Did the U.S. Attack Iran? by Bruce Gagnon

Image by Debra Sweet via Flickr

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from Sputnik, Jan. 3, 2020
January 4, 2020

America’s lawless arrogance has gone too far with the assassination of Iran’s top military commander. The deadly airstrike against General Qasem Soleimani was carried out on the order of President Donald Trump.

Several other senior Iranian military officials were also killed in the US missile attack on Iraq’s international airport in the capital Baghdad, including a top Iraqi militia leader.

Iranian politicians called it “an act of terrorism” and vowed harsh revenge. Meanwhile, the Iraqi prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, condemned the US violation of his country’s sovereignty. Other Iraqi leaders are demanding the immediate expulsion of US forces from the country, where they number about 5,000 troops.

Trump taunted by tweeting the American flag after the news of the assassination emerged on Friday, and he later declared that the Iranian general “should have been taken out years ago” because he allegedly was responsible for the deaths of “thousands” of US troops, according to Trump.

Certainly, Soleimani was considered an enemy by the US. He organised effective military resistance to American imperialist designs in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and elsewhere across the Middle East. For such strategising, the 62-year-old Iran-Iraq War veteran was revered, not just in his own nation, but across the region.

Trump claims the assassination was a necessary “pre-emptive defensive strike” because Soleimani was personally planning to launch region-wide attacks against US forces and diplomats. Pre-emptive “defensive” murder is not legally credible. The accusations against Soleimani are merely hearsay, and rely on the dubious word of internationally disgraced American intelligence agencies. Recall that US officials have been warning for months about Iranian plots to sabotage American interests in the Middle East – based on similar empty speculation.

For Trump to order the killing of such a revered public figure of a state which the US is not officially at war with is a brazen violation of international law. There can be no justification for this act of murder, despite the Trump administration’s lurid claims.

Qasem Soleimani, as leader of the elite Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, was seen by the Iranian nation as second only in importance to Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran.

What Trump has done is not just order a barbarous act of violence, it is a reckless act of war.

To order the murder of senior foreign officials by presidential decree without any pretence of lawfulness is to set a new low bar for US state roguery.

Many people in the Middle East, as well as around the world and among the US’s own population are rightly anxious about the consequences.

Trump is tempting to unleash an all-out war with Iran that will potentially drag several countries into a world war.

For several decades now, the US has acted as if it were above the law.

Countless illegal wars and invasions against foreign countries, leading to the deaths of millions of people, are now climaxing in the form of a so-called president and ruling clique which shows absolute disregard for even legal niceties. American lawlessness is now rampant and shameless in its arrogance.

Whether Iran retaliates this week, next week or in the coming months is perhaps besides the point. US aggression and its sense of impunity has taken the world into an extremely dangerous situation where international law is evidently redundant. Washington is behaving as a full-on tyranny that does what it pleases. War, sanctions, killings, bullying all done with a frightening delusion of self-righteousness.

Arguably, nothing on this scale of state criminality has been seen since the Third Reich.

But one suspects that such hubris and hypocrisy comes with fatal ignorance among US establishment politicians and media. America is an overstretched empire whose lawlessness is stumbling towards its own collapse.

The murder of General Qasem Soleimani this week rattled US financial markets from the repercussions of possible war. We can just imagine how the American and world economy will implode if Iranian ballistic missiles send a few US warships to the bottom of the Persian Gulf.

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Finian Cunningham, is a columnist at the Strategic Culture Foundation, Sputnik, and a Writer on Dandelion Salad. He can be reached at cunninghamfinian@gmail.com.

Why did the U.S. attack Iran?

by Bruce Gagnon
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Organizing Notes
January 4, 2020

If you are like me you often ask yourself why is this happening?

We saw the US assassinations of Major General Qasem Soleimani, Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard and Chief of the elite Quds Force Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, pro-Iranian chief of an umbrella group for Iraqi militias.

Why would the Pentagon risk a major war that could easily go nuclear by killing these military leaders? Does the US not understand such a provocative and illegal use on Iraq as the staging ground for these killings undermines Iraq’s independence? Is the US making an ‘ownership’ claim on Iraq? Is this Trumps reelection strategy – a full-blown war in the Middle East?

Or is this a dangerous and desperate move as we witness the declining global power of Washington? Has the American deep state determined that it is now or never? Take down Iran now, destroy it like they did to Iraq, in order to expand the power of ‘Greater Israel’ & Saudi Arabia – the permanent US war bases in the region.

The Pentagon is over extended. Nations are rejecting the US dollar. Washington is on the razor’s edge.

Immediately the December 27 joint naval exercise with Iran, Russia and China comes to mind. Code-named “Naval Security Belt” in Indian Ocean waters, this war game had to drive the Pentagon warmongers nuts. See this news report from DefenseWorld.net:

“Iran’s Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi reported that “the purpose of the war game is to ensure collective security and help strengthen security in the northern region of the Indian Ocean.”

“In addition, Khanzadi expressed the Iranian Navy’s readiness to work with China in the joint production of destroyers and submarines. In 2016, the defense ministers of Iran and China signed an agreement in Tehran to enhance the defense cooperation between the two countries.

“”We will begin manufacturing heavy surface and subsurface equipment in the near future, and are ready for joint operations and the exchange of technical data as well as research capacities with China,” the Iranian general added.”

Could it be that the US is terrified by the alliance of Iran-Russia-China? These three nations understand that alone they could be taken down by Washington. In a strong alliance it would be impossible to do so, and the US would be destroyed by initiating war against them.

But being the backyard bully that he is, Washington’s Mr. Big is arrogant and lacking in human empathy. Power and greed are embedded inside Mr. Big’s hard heart. He sees his demise in the near future, unless in this last moment he can throw a hail Mary pass for the winning touchdown. Go down swinging – even if it is a nuclear swing. It’s a sickness that infects all of us in America to some degree or the other. It’s American exceptionalism on steroids.

We need to be active on social media and in the streets immediately to protest US policy. We need to tell the spineless corporate stooges inhabiting Congress that the people can’t afford another war. We have bigger fish to fry like climate catastrophe, growing poverty and homelessness and increasing health crises while still having no Medicare for All.

Hell, these idiots could not fully take down Iraq or Afghanistan or Venezuela. (But they did do regime change in Brazil, Bolivia and Ukraine.) So the modus operandi of the criminal syndicate in Washington is keep rolling the dice until some nation (or group of nations) will stop them.

The US likely did these assassinations to send its own message in response to the Iran-Russia-China naval exercises. The bully cowardly kills to prove to the world he is still King of the Mountain. Deep inside though, Mr. Big knows he is done.

The question is will Trump do as ordered by the deep state and roll the dice that could bring the final war on Earth.

We all must act now by demanding No More War.

Iraqis storm US Embassy in Baghdad

with Caleb Maupin
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Caleb Maupin (website)
Caleb Maupin (Facebook Page)
January 4, 2020

Caleb Maupin on Jan 2, 2020

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Caleb Maupin is a radical journalist and political analyst who resides in New York City. Originally from Ohio, he studied political science at Baldwin-Wallace College. In addition to his journalism, analysis, and commentary, he has engaged in political activism. He was involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement from its planning stages in August of 2011. He has worked against police brutality, mass incarceration, and imperialist war. He works to promote revolutionary ideology, and to support all who fight against the global system of monopoly capitalist imperialism.

Qasem Soleimani: What You Need to Know

by Will Griffin
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Peace Report
January 4, 2020

The Peace Report on Jan 3, 2020

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Empire Files LIVE – No US War on Iran & Iraq!

with Abby Martin and Mike Prysner

Empire Files on Jan 3, 2020

Abby Martin and Mike Prysner host an emergency livestream to address the Trump administration’s dangerous escalation of war with Iran and Iraq with the extrajudicial drone assassination of top Iranian General Qasem Soleimani. They discuss history of US intervention, the 2020 Democratic presidential contenders positions and give a call to action for protests as well as for active duty soldiers to file for conscientious objector status.

Keep Empire Files independent and ad-free: https://www.patreon.com/empirefiles

Find protests near you: https://AnswerCoalition.org

DM Eyes Left if you’re a US service member who opposes the war: https:///twitter.com/EyesLeftPod

Qasem Soleimani killing: Likely reactions from Iran and Iraq

CNA on Jan 3, 2020

Top Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani was killed in Baghdad on Friday (Jan 3) in an attack ordered by US President Donald Trump. What can we expect from Iran, Iraq and the United States following Soleimani’s assassination? Middle East expert Dr. James Dorsey, a senior fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, explains.

Washington kills powerful Iranian general Soleimani in Iraq on Trump’s orders

RT on Jan 3, 2020

Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the elite Quds Force, was killed after his convoy was hit by US missiles. Donald Trump authorized a US military strike, the Pentagon confirmed in a statement.

See also:

New air strike on pro-Iran convoy in Iraq ahead of Soleimani funeral

BREAKING: Trump starts war on Iran: ALL OUT Sat. Jan. 4 National Day of Action

The Soleimani Assassination: The Long-Awaited Beginning of The End of America’s Imperial Ambitions by Philip Giraldi

The murder of Qassem Soleimani and assassination as state policy by Bill Van Auken

Baghdad delivers a New Year’s message, U.S. escalates aggression by Sara Flounders

War With Iran by Chris Hedges

From the archives:

The Iraq Embassy Revolt Portends to the Future of Class Struggle by Rainer Shea + Mike Prysner: No War on Iran! Troops Out of Iraq!

Impeachment: What Lies Beneath? by Jim Kavanagh

Chris Hedges and Stephen Kinzer: War With Iran?

Iran, Hong Kong, and the Desperation of a Declining U.S. Empire by Rainer Shea

Idiots Driving World to War by Finian Cunningham

Who Actually Believes America and Its Flagrant Attempts To Corner Iran? by Finian Cunningham + Vijay Prashad: Where Are the Skeptics? + Wilkerson: US Further Isolates Itself

US Foreign Policy is Nothing Short of Low-Intensity Warfare Against the Whole Planet by Finian Cunningham

Chris Hedges and Medea Benjamin: Threat of War with Iran + Anti-War Resistance?

Chris Hedges and Scott Ritter: The Dismantling of the Iran Nuclear Deal