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Daily News Analysis

General Qassem Soleimani: ‘The living martyr’

Mohammad Khaku

Iran and Muslims, indeed even non-Muslims worldwide, have observed and continue to observe a somber second anniversary of the assassination of General Qassim Soleimani.

I happen to share my birthday with the most horrific crime ever committed by the US in the assassination of Al Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani on January 3, 2020.

One’s birthday is fantastic but I will remember, honor, and make it a day for the martyrs, the resistance movement, and all those killed through police brutality.

Yes, that includes supporting Black Lives Matter (BLM).

For me, it’s a point of pride to share a birthday on the day of the martyrdom of a brave, determined and courageous commander.

General Soleimani’s assassination was a war crime because he was a senior official of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Trump must be prosecuted on criminal negligence charges for the death of 800,000 Americans due to Covid, the assassination of General Soleimani and the January 6, 2020 insurrection.

Justice shall prevail.

As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”

Millions of Iranians paused to remember General Qassim Soleimani.

Millions of Iranians marched towards two major roundabouts in the center of Tehran known as Inqilab (Revolution) and Azadi (Liberation) Squares to mark the second anniversary of his martyrdom.

These two roundabouts have played a major role in the political history of Iran.

Azadi and Inqilab Squares are two focal points which have played a major role in the victory of the 1979 Islamic revolution that put an end to the Pahlavi dynasty re-installed in 1953 through a CIA coup.

January 17 is observed in the US as Dr. Martin Luther King Day.

He delivered many powerful speeches such as “I have a Dream” to “I’ve been to the Mountaintop” to” Beyond Vietnam”.

However, his April 1967 speech powerfully condemned US militarism and the war in Indochina.

In his speech, “Beyond Vietnam.” King said, “of a society gone mad on war.”

Despite its humiliating defeat in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, the US continues to fight proxy wars on behalf of the Bedouin Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Zionist Israel.

The US has tried to justify the assassination of General Soleimani by claiming he meddled in affairs outside Iran’s borders and conducted war against US soldiers.

These allegations are misleading and unjustifiable.

The State department and Zionists have labeled him evil because General Soleimani created an arc of resistance from Palestine to Yemen.

When the CIA carried out the 1953 CIA against Iran’s elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh to reinstall the tyrannical Shah whose secret police, the SAVAK, committed genocide, the US called it a ‘success’.

The lasting legacy of General Soleimani will remain a source of inspiration for the oppressed people worldwide and especially for Palestinians who fight for their liberation and Statehood.

General Soleimani was committed to the elimination of terrorist groups like Daesh/ISIS and the liberation of Zionist occupied Palestine.

General Soleimani did not kill any Americans, rather he helped them liberate Fallujah and Mosul and destroy Daesh/ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

The US through the CIA continues to destabilize Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Cuba, Venezuela, and other governments around the world.

When America claims exceptionalism, indulges in wasteful military spending, we fail to see the irony.

The US occupies other lands, conducts forever wars, sabotages elections, and maintains more than 800 military bases outside its borders.

The Pentagon’s Special Operations Forces are involved in more than 100 countries but never sees itself as meddling in other countries’ affairs.

On July 3, 1988, the US fired surface-to-air missiles from USS Vincennes killing all 290 Iranians on board Iran Air flight 655 from Bandar Abbas to Dubai. Is this not terrorism?

Dr. King’s critique of militarism and exceptionalism require us to ponder and investigate why the US occupies countries around the world, interferes in their affairs, and then we wonder why they hate us?

The answer is the leaked 92 pages of 1992 Defense Policy Guidance (DPG) draft written by Paul Wolfowitz on behalf of Defense Secretary Dick Cheney. https://www.archives.gov/files/declassification/iscap/pdf/2008-003-docs1-12.pdf

After the collapse of the Soviet Union the neocon-Zionist-Christian right wanted to dominate the world and their goals were clearly stated in this document.

The strategic points of the documents were that Pentagon and CIA should prevent the emergence of a rival superpower, safeguard US interests, promote American values, and United States must be prepared to take unilateral action.

This meant that US should not be constrained by international laws or United Nations and should aggressively seek regime change if any country tries to acquire nuclear weapons.

What is now clear is the Bush era neo-cons and the think-tanks of Washington who orchestrated the Afghan and Iraq wars used 9/11 as a pretext to implement their preplanned agenda as stated in DPG.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld urged his proxies following 9/11, “Make the American people realize they are surrounded in the world by violent Islamic extremists.”

This was the message delivered 24/7.

The media like Fox news, neo-cons, right-wing Islamophobes and neo-McCarthyites had a field day after 9/11.

“And say not of those slain in Allah’s cause, ‘They are dead’: nay they are alive, but you perceive it not” (2:154).

Well before General Soleimani’s assassination, Iran’s Rahbar, Syed Ali Khamenei, had referred to Soleimani as “a living martyr of the revolution.”

General Soleimani was a humble servant. https://sfbayview.com/2021/01/remembering-a-humble-giant-qassem-soleimani/

According to MarketWatch, back in March 2019, with no inkling of his martyrdom to come, Imam Khamenei “expressed hope that he would die as one.”


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