Eric Zuesse for the Saker Blog<\/p>\n
Even some mainstream U.S. \u2018news\u2019-media (but none that are Republican) acknowledge the fact that Qasem Soleimani was among the most effective of all nations\u2019 generals who fought against ISIS. Other mainstream U.S. \u2018news\u2019-media seem very reluctant to do so, because the entirety of America\u2019s mainstream \u2018journalism\u2019 has spewed hatred against Iran\u2019s Government after Iranians in 1979 succeeded at overthrowing the dictator Shah whom America\u2019s CIA had installed in 1953 to end Iran\u2019s democracy and to control the country, and he privatized the National Iranian Oil company and cut America\u2019s aristocrats in on the profits from sales of Iranian oil. (Under George W. Bush, the U.S. Government did\u00a0basically the same thing to Iraq\u2019s oil industry<\/a>.) So, America\u2019s mainstream \u2018news\u2019-media, which are owned by the same aristocracy that imposed Iran\u2019s dictatorship in 1953, have portrayed Iran\u2019s #2 leader, General Qasem Soleimani, as a \u2018terrorist\u2019, instead of as the leading fighter against ISIS, which he actually was.<\/p>\n On 3 January 2020, Ilan Goldenberg, of the Democratic Party neoconservative Center for a New American Security, headlined in the Council on Foreign Relations\u2019s\u00a0Foreign Affairs<\/em>,\u00a0\u201cWill Iran\u2019s Response to the Soleimani Strike Lead to War?\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and only two references to ISIS were there, both buried in his article: \u201cHe led Iran\u2019s campaign to arm and train Shiite militias in Iraq \u2014 militias responsible for the deaths of an estimated 600 American troops from 2003 to 2011\u2014 and became the chief purveyor of Iranian political influence in Iraq thereafter, most notably through his efforts to fight the Islamic State (ISIS).\u201d And: \u201cISIS retains an underground presence and could take advantage of the chaos of an American withdrawal or a U.S.-Iranian conflict to improve its position in Iraq.\u201d So, it\u2019s hard for a reader there to figure out that Trump actually assassinated ISIS\u2019s main enemy.<\/p>\n On January 4th, Marketwatch headlined\u00a0\u201cWho was Qassem Soleimani, and why is his death a major development in U.S.-Middle East relations?\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and there was only a single reference to ISIS, the source being Iran, which that article was criticizing: \u201cIn a tweet, Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif described the strike that killed the general as an act of international terrorism: \u2018The US act of international terrorism, targeting & assassinating General Soleimani \u2014 THE most effective force fighting Daesh (ISIS), Al Nusrah, Al Qaeda et al \u2014 is extremely dangerous & a foolish escalation,\u2019 he wrote on Twitter. \u2018The US bears responsibility for all consequences of its rogue adventurism,\u2019 he said.\u201d<\/p>\n Some of America\u2019s mainstream \u2018news\u2019-media portrayed the killing of Soleimani as being damaging to America\u2019s ability to continue occupying Iraq and therefore harmful to the fight against ISIS\u00a0because the U.S. \u2014 not Iran and Russia \u2014 lead the fight against ISIS in both Iraq and Syria<\/em>. In other words: they presume that lie. Politico headlined on January 3rd,\u00a0\u201cHow the Soleimani strike could kneecap the fight against ISIS\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and opened:<\/p>\n The U.S. strike that killed Iran\u2019s top military leader could put America\u2019s fight against the Islamic State in jeopardy, opening the door to the reemergence of the terrorist group.<\/em><\/p>\n The Thursday night attack on Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani could also prompt the government in Iraq to kick U.S. troops out of the country, ending America\u2019s mission to train the Iraqi military to fight terrorist groups.<\/em><\/p>\n U.S. troops have deployed to Iraq since 2014 to fight ISIS and train Iraqi forces with permission from the Iraqi government. As part of this agreement, Iraq asked the U.S. specifically not to target Iran within the country, a request America has now violated \u201cin flagrant fashion\u201d with the strike on Soleimani near the Baghdad airport, said Scott Anderson, a former legal adviser to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThis is going to put a lot of pressure on those aspects of our relationship they have control over,\u201d Anderson, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, said Friday. \u2026 \u201cIf we can\u2019t be in Iraq, we can\u2019t be in Syria,\u201d Barbara Slavin, the director of the Future Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council, said Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n They don\u2019t mention that both Brookings and the Atlantic Council are neoconservative, pro-imperialist, and controlled by (overwhelmingly funded by) large U.S.-based international corporations and U.S.-allied governments, which benefit from U.S.-and-allied arms-sales and oil-extraction. So, that\u2019s just a standard propaganda-piece from Politico, pumping the U.S. empire.<\/p>\n For once, CNN broke with U.S. imperialism, and headlined on January 3rd,\u00a0\u201cAnalysis: It\u2019s important to remember the role Soleimani played in the fight against ISIS\u201d<\/a>. Perhaps because CNN is controlled by Democratic Party billionaires instead of by Republican-Party ones, they reported that:<\/p>\n It is important to remember the role both he and Iran played in the fight against ISIS.<\/em><\/p>\n While US aircraft, special forces and local allies fought ISIS in Syria, as well as in Iraq, Iranian-backed militia also pushed the terror group back in Iraq. Soleimani was reported to have often led that fight from the front line \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n The 62-year-old led Iran\u2019s elite Quds Force, which had a hand in both fighting the Islamic State militant group and U.S. forces.<\/em><\/p>\n There was no contradiction between those two positions shared both by Soleimani and Iran, because ISIS was created as a fundamentalist-Sunni U.S. proxy fighting force against Iraq\u2019s Shiites. There was also this:<\/p>\n Long known as the \u2018shadow commander\u2019 in Western media, his profile was raised in 2015 as Iranian outlets began releasing photos of him in the battlefield guiding the war against ISIS. \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n Soleimani is also credited with<\/em>\u00a0fighting the Islamic State militant group in Iraq<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>In a 2017 public letter<\/em><\/a>, he denounced the \u201cevil movement\u201d that managed \u201cto deceive tens of thousands of Muslim youth\u201d in Iraq and Syria, while also blaming the U.S. for the rise and spread of ISIS.<\/em><\/p>\n Iran had launched airstrikes against ISIS fighters outside Baghdad\u00a0<\/em>in late 2014\u00a0<\/em><\/a>just as the United States and its coalition partners were taking on the extremist group.<\/em><\/p>\n ISIS, made up of Sunni extremists, was ideologically at odds with Soleimani and the Iranian Shiite regime he defended.<\/em><\/p>\n Soleimani and his commanders were on the front lines in Iraq and\u00a0<\/em>his name became synonymous with victories\u00a0<\/em><\/a>attributed to Iraqi ground forces<\/em>\u00a0[fighting against ISIS]. He had presented himself as the face of the offensive in Tikrit, a city which fell under ISIS control in 2014\u00a0<\/em>[HE WAS FIGHTING AGAINST ISIS THERE].<\/em><\/p>\n Iran sought to highlight his efforts against ISIS while protesting his death Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n Another pro-Democratic-Party \u2018news\u2019-site, MSNBC, likewise included, on January 3rd, some of \u2018the enemy\u2019s side\u2019 in this:\u00a0\u201cThe 62-year-old led Iran\u2019s elite Quds Force, which had a hand in both fighting the Islamic State militant group and U.S. forces.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Indicating how confused and hostile Americans are to encounter \u2014\u00a0in the few media where they can<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 the truth about Soleimani and about the reality in the Middle East, there was a January 3rd news-report from\u00a0Washington Times<\/em>\u00a0headlined\u00a0\u201cGeraldo Rivera laments strike on U.S. \u2018friend\u2019 Qassem Soleimani, says Quds leader \u2018saved people\u2019\u201d<\/a>\u00a0which opened:<\/p>\n Fox News contributor Geraldo Rivera says the Baghdad airstrike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani was a strategic error against a U.S. \u201cfriend\u201d who \u201csaved people.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n A \u201cFox & Friends\u201d panel was injected with heated rhetoric on Friday when Mr. Rivera defended the Quds force leader\u2019s r\u00e9sum\u00e9 in a discussion with Ainsley Earhardt, Brian Kilmeade and Steve Doocy.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cSix months ago, Ainsley, this guy was our friend,\u201d Mr. Rivera said.<\/em><\/p>\n Rivera was opposed not only by the other Fox \u201cFriends\u201d there, but by the reader-comments, such as the most-liked ones:<\/p>\n Sort by Best<\/em><\/p>\n \u2022 RedBowtie<\/em><\/p>\n What planet does Rivera live on? Soleimani has engineered the killing of many Americans.<\/em><\/p>\n 7 Likes<\/em><\/p>\n \u2022 RedGuitar<\/em><\/p>\n stalin was our friend and helped us defeat hitler. no really a friend. ha<\/em><\/p>\n 6 Likes<\/em><\/p>\n They want to remain suckers of America\u2019s billionaires, who want to have Iran back.<\/p>\n Of course, Russia\u2019s news-media were\u00a0honest about this matter<\/a>; they have no reason to lie about it; and, besides,\u00a0they don\u2019t lie<\/a>\u00a0nearly as frequently as America\u2019s billionaire-controlled \u2018news\u2019-media do \u2014 they know they are distrusted from the get-go throughout the U.S. empire, because Russia\u2019s lying Soviet predecessors (before 1991) are constantly pumped to America\u2019s \u2018news\u2019-media behind the scenes by America\u2019s CIA (representing America\u2019s billionaires) as being like today\u2019s Russian news-media,\u00a0which they very much are not<\/em>. Russia really did end the Cold War;\u00a0the U.S. regime never did<\/a>.<\/p>\n On January 4th, India\u2019s\u00a0Economic Times<\/em>\u00a0headlined\u00a0\u201cSoleimani, face of fight against ISIS, Taliban\u201d<\/a>, and reported that:<\/p>\n Soleimani was the face of armed resistance against ISIS in Iraq and Syria and contributed in a big way in defeating ISIS, said an expert familiar with West Asian dynamics who requested not to be identified.<\/em><\/p>\n Last year Soleimani had also slammed Pakistan for its failure to control terror groups on its soil that targeted Iranian Revolutionary Guards group.<\/em><\/p>\n Iran and India were among regional powers that backed anti-Taliban forces along with Russia before Taliban was ousted in Afghanistan. \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n Last February, a car laden with explosives hit a bus of Revolutionary Guard soldiers on Zahedan-Khash road in Iran\u2019s border province of Sistan-Balouchestan, killing 27 and injuring 13. Pakistan-based Jaish ul-Adl Takfiri terrorist group, which has ties to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack.<\/em><\/p>\n Days after the attack, Soleimani said Iran does not want mere condolences, but concrete action from Pakistan. \u201cCan\u2019t you, as a nuclear-armed state, deal with a hundreds-strong terrorist group in the region?\u201d he had said.<\/em><\/p>\n That\u2019s a major daily newspaper in Hindu India, which isn\u2019t a place about which readers in America and allied countries haven\u2019t been taught by their news-media to expect to see such a commentary being published. According to\u00a0Wikipedia<\/a>, \u201cAs of 2012, it is the world\u2019s second-most widely read English-language\u00a0business newspaper, after\u00a0The Wall Street Journal,[4]\u00a0with a readership of over 800,000.\u201d<\/p>\n Also on January 4th former UK Ambassador Craig Murray headlined from Britain\u00a0\u201cLies, the Bethlehem Doctrine, and the Illegal Murder of Soleimani\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and he exposed lies against Soleimani by Democratic U.S. Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, and a key neoconservative legal advisor to UK\u2019s Government. He was exposing there a bipartisan and international sliming operation, the type of thing that traditionally persuades masses of suckers to vote for politicians who continue the grand imperial enterprise, for the benefit of U.S.-and-allied billionaires.\u00a0 However, that scam might not be so successful this time around.<\/p>\n