Todd Bishop
In the early hours of January 3rd local time, an air strike suddenly occurred around the Baghdad International Airport in Iraq. At least three rockets hit construction facilities and caused many casualties.
Among the many dead and wounded, a dead man from Iran shocked the outside world. This is General Qassim Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards “Holy City Army”. As Suleimani was Iran ’s de facto supreme commander and chief of military and intelligence operations in Iraq and Syria , his accidental death escalated the storm. The exchange of fire between U.S. and Iraqi military personnel resulted in death and injury, and triggered a sharp turn in the storm that destroyed the US embassy.
The US side that launched the attack quickly realized the value of the deceased and used it as a basis for inviting US President Donald Trump. Following the air strike, the Pentagon issued a press release stating that the air strike was a “decisive defensive operation” “under the leadership of the President.” The United States killed “Leader of the Terrorist Organization” designated by the United States, namely Suleimani, “for the purpose of preventing an attack by Iran.”
Indeed, the killing of Suleimani may have allowed Washington’s military and politicians to grow angry. This is not just related to the recent destruction of the US ambassador to Iraq by “Iraqi people who support Iran.” Suleimani himself is also a difficult US rival for many years.
The CIA has regarded it as “the strongest agent in the Middle East” as early as 2013, and Joseph Maguire, a former CIA senior official in Iraq, has complained that this person’s intelligence is difficult to collect. His reputation is also thunderous in the intelligence community in the Middle East. Meir Dagan, the former director of Israeli “Mosad”, also emphasized his admiration for him in an interview with The New Yorker.
Of course, Suleimani’s operation is not only in the field of intelligence. He is also responsible for military operations in Iraq and Syria. He personally texted U.S. commander David Petraeus in Iraq in 2008, emphasizing that Iran’s control in Iraq is stronger than that of Americans.
During the Syrian civil war, Suleimani not only established the Syrian National Defense Forces (NDF) and other militia agencies, he also personally went to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin, expressing his pain in the Syrian battlefield in 2015, accelerating Russia The process of sending troops to Syria. Suleimani also sneered at the then CIA leader Mike Pompeo in 2017 and refused to accept a message from an informer on the battlefield.
However, the outside world can also find that killing an Iranian commander cannot change the situation of the United States in Iraq and Syria. Since 2014, Iran has effectively projected its political and military influence in Syria and Iraq.
In the face of the chaos in the Middle East, after Russia has successfully maintained the stability of Iran, Iran has also fully played a key role in it: it has contacted Shi’ite political forces in Iraq by sending troops and assistance to ensure Syria ’s Shi’ite political forces have not been subverted, they have supported the Lebanese Hezbollah armed forces, and they have also provided support to Yemen’s Houthi armed forces. This has allowed Russia to take the initiative in the Middle East. It also made the United States gradually become passive after the formation of the Shia-Belt.
In this way, although the US Department of Defense can emphasize that “the United States will continue to take all necessary actions” after the death of Suleimani, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper can also “urge the Iranian regime to stop its malicious actions” on the day of the air strike activity”. However, the outside world can also find that this sudden attack by the United States on the Shi’ite Arc is promoting a new high point of tension between the United States and Iran, which may be a new obstacle for Trump and the Pentagon.
