[rad-green] Trump's killing of Soleimani finally blows up the fake Russiagate narrative

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52795.htm

*Information Clearing House          January 3, 2020 *

*Trump's killing of Soleimani finally blows up the fake Russiagate
narrative*

*Iran is a key Middle Eastern ally of Russia, an important strategic
partner. By assassinating Soleimani and putting us on a military collision
course with Tehran, Trump is not only menacing the Islamic Republic, he is
poking the Russian bear in the chest, back and face too. Today’s events,
for anyone who still had any doubts, shows that the foreign country which
have the greatest influence in US politics is not Russia, but Israel (and
after Israel, Saudi Arabia).*

By Neil Clark

Trump’s ordered assassination of General Qasem Soleimani, head of the
Revolutionary Guards’ elite Quds force, not only means a dangerous
escalation of tensions with Iran, but also ends fiction that Russia was
controlling him.

Just imagine….. If Iran’s President Rouhani had authorised a New Year drone
strike on General Mark Milley, the Chairman of the United States Joint
Chiefs of Staff, as he was being driven to the airport in Canada.

Would anyone even be suggesting that the attack was done in ‘self-defense’?
But that’s exactly the line we’re being fed now about the killing of Qasem
Soleimani.

The undeniable truth is that for all his posthumous neocon demonization as
the most evil man on the planet, the silver-haired Soleimani played a key
role in the defeat of the barbaric death-cult ISIS and other al-Qaeda
affiliates in the Middle East. He helped mastermind secular,
Christian-protecting, Syria’s against-the-odds survival in the face of a
ferocious onslaught by some of the most powerful countries in the world,
who unleashed an alphabet soup of jihadist proxies and death squads to try
and achieve a violent ‘regime change’. Soleimani’s reward for fighting the
groups that have targeted western civilians around the globe -- including
American citizens on 9-11, and British tourists in Tunisia in 2015, was to
be blown up right at the start of 2020. Remind me again, who are the
terrorists here?

The airwaves are full of talk about the likelihood of a war on Iran, but
the fact is that hostilities have already started. Trump provocatively
pulled out of the Iranian nuclear deal, boasted that his new sanctions on
Iran were ‘the highest ever imposed on a country,’ and now has ordered the
killing of a man regarded by many as the most powerful figure in the
country. Soleimani threatened US forces in Iraq we are told, by means of a
justification. But what are US forces doing in Iraq in the first place?

We’re meant to forget that they came there at the head of an illegal
invasion force in 2003 which was supposed to be about getting rid of Iraqi
weapons of mass destruction which didn‘t actually exist. What right did the
US and its allies have to invade Iraq seventeen years ago? Absolutely none,
under international law. But Iraqi WMDs was not the only deception. Far
from it.

We’ve been told (ad nauseum) the past few years that Donald Trump was under
the control of Putin. That he was a de facto Russian agent. A marionette of
Moscow.

At least now, not even the most credulous inhabitant of planet Earth will
believe that one. Iran is a key Middle Eastern ally of Russia, an important
strategic partner. By assassinating Soleimani and putting us on a military
collision course with Tehran, Trump is not only menacing the Islamic
Republic, he is poking the Russian bear in the chest, back and face too.
Today’s events, for anyone who still had any doubts, shows that the foreign
country which have the greatest influence in US politics is not Russia, but
Israel (and after Israel, Saudi Arabia).

The killing of Soleimani — and the strong likelihood of Iranian retaliation
against US targets, makes no sense from a US viewpoint, but it makes plenty
of sense from an Israeli one. The Iranian general has had his card marked
for a long time by Tel Aviv. The Jerusalem Post notes
<https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Soleimani-increased-Iranian-threats-to-Israel-before-death-612976>
that
the Quds supremo *"was a key part of Iran’s support for Hezbollah during
the 2006 war with Israel".* He also stressed Iran’s continuing support for
the Palestinians.

If you were a staunch Zionist there’s probably no one in the world you’d
want out of the way more than Soleimani. But here’s a great truth which is
rarely if ever spoken in US public discourse, or indeed in Britain:
Israel’s priorities (smashing the Iran-Syrian-Hezbollah axis and
eliminating leading figures from those countries/movements), actually
weakens the broader fight against radical Islamist terror groups. If a ‘War
on Terror’ was really being fought, you wouldn’t be droning those who have
done the most to defeat ISIS and al-Qaeda, would you? But that’s what
Donald Trump is doing. All the time liberals were getting into a strop over
non-existent ‘Russian interference,’ Israel and its lobby were pushing for
tougher action against Iran, the strongest regional foe of ISIS and
al-Qaeda.

In November 2011, Trump went on Twitter to ‘predict’ that President Obama
would start a war with Iran to get re-elected.
[image: image.png]

But Obama didn’t. Not only that, but the Obama administration twice
discouraged
<https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Soleimani-increased-Iranian-threats-to-Israel-before-death-612976>
Israel
from going ahead with plans to kill Soleimani when they had the
opportunity. Trump is undoubtedly the most pro-Israel President America has
ever had. That means the dangers of a major conflagration breaking out in
2020 are greatly increased, for all the pre-election rhetoric about ending
Middle Eastern wars.

*Neil Clark is a journalist, writer, broadcaster and blogger. He tweets on
politics and world affairs @NeilClark66*

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