Trump Regime Assassinations a Game Changer?
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
OKing the cold-blooded murders of Iranian Quds Force commander General Qassem Soleimani and deputy head of Iraq’s PMU Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis inflamed popular outrage in both countries, the region and elsewhere.
The hostile action further burnished Trump’s dubious credentials as a geopolitical moron — more greatly turning countless millions of Muslims in Iraq, Iran, elsewhere in the region and worldwide into raging US haters, hastening its decline.
Assassinating both figures, redoubtable national heroes, others days earlier, still more yesterday, were counterproductive acts of imperial arrogance and stupidity — along with committing flagrant international and US constitutional law violations.
Establishment media reactions to what happened were mixed.
NYT editors said Soleimani’s assassination “rock(ed) the Middle East,” adding:
Its lawlessness aside, “(t)he real question to ask (is) whether it was wise,” calling his killing “a big leap in(to)” the unknown.
The Times falsely called Soleimani “indisputably an enemy of the American people…responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans and a great many others in the region” — a bald-faced Big Lie, typical Times disinformation.
Revered in Iran as a national hero, he played a lead role in combatting the scourge of US-supported ISIS in the region.
The Times: “It may well be that General Soleimani had come to Iraq in part to plot the next move against United States military personnel or civilians (sic).”
He was allied with his Iraqi counterparts in supporting the sovereignty and security of regional countries, grievously harmed by the scourge of US aggression — a noble mission.
Before his assassination, US war secretary Esper provocatively said “(t)he game has changed,” vowing escalated US regional aggression in pursuit of its imperial aims.
The Times questioned the wisdom of killing Soleimani, saying that eliminating a “highly popular” figure “render(s) a major Iranian retaliation certain.”
Its ruling authorities and strategists act responsibly. They’ll likely respond to US aggression appropriately in a sound way at a time of their choosing.
Clearly a strong response is warranted, an asymmetrical one likely, US personnel in the region no longer safe.
Candidate Trump’s promise to end US wars, bring US troops home, and focus on homeland needs was discarded in favor of escalated aggression in multiple theaters. Is Iran next?
WaPo editors turned truth on its head, calling Soleimani a US “enemy,” adding: “That doesn’t mean Trump made the right call…or that it will…benefit US interests.”
Far from it by more greatly inflaming anti-US outrage in the region and elsewhere, including at home. More on that below.
WaPo said what follows US assassinations is “unpredictable, but there is no denying the risk that the United States will be pulled more deeply into the Middle East and its conflicts” — begun by the US it failed to explain.
Hawkish Wall Street Journal editors cheered Soleimani’s cold-blooded murder, falsely calling him “a terrorist who killed hundreds of Americans” — a bald-faced Big Lie.
The ANSWER Coalition called the Trump regime’s assassination of General Soleimani an act of war on Iran, stressing:
“Unless the people of the United States rise up and stop it, this war will engulf the whole region and could quickly turn into a global conflict of unpredictable scope and potentially the gravest consequences.”
“On Saturday, January 4 in cities across the (US), there will be protests against a new war in the Middle East and calling for the withdrawal of all US troops and bases in the region” — supported by the following organizations and individuals, a partial list:
ANSWER Coalition
CODEPINK
Popular Resistance
Veterans for Peace
World Beyond War
Voices for Creative Non-Violence
American-Iranian Friendship Committee (AIFC)
Black Alliance For Peace
United AntiWar Coalition (UNAC)
Cindy Sheehan
US Labor Against the War (USLAW)
Dorothy Day Catholic Worker – DC
Cuba and Venezuela Solidarity Committee – US
Minnesota Peace Action
Labor for Palestine
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
Pierre Labossiere, Haiti Action Network
Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoners Solidarity Network
Rev. Graylan Hagler, Senior Minister, Plymouth Congregational Church Washington, DC
Maine WTR Resource Center
Hilton Head for Peace
Demonstrations are planned outside the White House in Washington, at the Trump Tower in Chicago, in NY’s Times Square, in LA, San Francisco, Miami, Albuquerque, Seattle, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Portland, ME, Pittsburgh, Denver, Boston, Sacramento, Philadelphia, San Diego, Austin, TX, Cleveland, San Antonio, Milwaukee, Boise, Las Vegas, San Jose, Phoenix, Dallas, Salt Lake City, St. Louis, Detroit, New Orleans, Cincinnati, many other cities — and abroad.
VISIT MY WEBSITE: stephenlendman.org (Home – Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
My newest book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
The Stephen Lendman Blog 
Leave a Reply