IRGC Quds Force Leader killed in airstrike @ Baghad Int

[Ravenworks]

Yeah, I'm old, but I ain't that old! Lol! Missed Beirut by about 5 years and some change....

I often wonder how different life would be if Reagan would have stepped up when our barracks fell.
In my heart, that bombing was the start of the end.

 

[BoilerUP]

I don't think the Iranians are stupid; they know that attempting to close the Strait of Hormuz or attack a US Navy capital ship would legitimize a massive military attack on not only their military installations, but their nuclear sites and their government leadership.

Besides, the US need not expend a single piece of ordnance to do that - all they have to do is provide the IAF passage through Iraqi airspace.

That is a fight they simply cannot win, and truthfully a fight that I don't think Trump really wants...but is willing to prosecute if necessary. And let's be honest, if he really wanted a war with Iran they've given him a fuckton of reasons prior to the Embassy "protest".

Their "retaliation" will be nuanced, through proxies, though I fully expect Americans to somehow die at their behest.

In related news,

The media, who has promised us a Trump war since November 2016, is now getting the people worked up with stories about looming Iranian cyberattacks that will shut off their power and water or cause issues with credit card transactions.

 

[Alphatreedog]

More Rant :
If we're at war with Terror and Iran is such a huge exporter and supporter of Terror why are we not more directly focusing on this terrorist regime .

 

[Greg Langelius *]

So, if the Obozo clan is advising Iran, what are they doing with NoKo, China, and Russia.

I mean, it's not at all like they don't have close friends in high places with those folks, too...

I think that's the answer to "WTF is going on in the world?"

One Worlder subversion of the national interest, with a side dish of Sedition.

Traitors all; hanging's too good.

Re: Iran; Rouhani keeps making threats about attacks from unexpected places. I think they'll be from IRGC sleeper cells in the USA, who came in compliments of the Democrats through the Southern Border, obtained citizenship, and arming themselves, compliments of that 2A the Democrats keep claiming they need to undermine.

I keep my powder dry, but I'm not interested in facing off against my government. I think I'll be busy enough defending my home and family from foreign infiltrators in our midst. IMHO, the threat will be coming from a lot nearer than DC, etc.

Greg

 

[Snuby642]

So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, and some taste
Use all your well-learned politesse
Or I'll lay your soul to waste, mm yeah
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name, mm yeah
But what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, mm mean it, get down
Oh yeah, get on down
Oh yeah

The great satan ? ~mm ok.

 

[308220]

When that piece of shit was blown all over the sand, all liberals shed a tear.

 

[308220]

Im interested to see what Russia is going to say. They always said something of the sort...

"If the US attacks Iran, it will be WW3."

Yeah, ok.

 

[Darayavaus]

View attachment 7216324

there's an informative, kinda interesting cartoon movie about how life changed for the average Iranian after the psychos took over:

 

[MosesTheTank]

Watching talking heads on Cavuto . Commies cryin that there will be reprisals . Cryin that Iran has numerous proxi militias throughout the ME .
A. If they do have that effin many militias stirrin shit throughout the ME let em take a shot . Currently looks like , at least to me , take a shot and did . Eventually these guys get thinned out .
B. Reprisals as compared to what ? From current backwards .
Embassy attach in Irag
Rocket attack killing US. Contractors
Proxi War in Yemen
Saudi Oil field attacks
IEDs and weapons funneled into Iraq to and did kill thousands of Americans .
Hezbollah in Mexico and South America .
Captured a US vessel and it's crew without consequence .
Shot down a drone
American hostages in perpetuity every fuckin chance they get
Bombings in India, Africa and all over the ME .
Harassing US Warships

So the Dems are claimin don't piss em off they might do sumpin . Like wahat ya buncha fucktards ? What they've been doing ain't enough to warrant a defensive response . And yeah heard me right Defensive . When a bully is goin around swingin on people and you know he's gonna swing again then yeah , throwin the first punch is defensive .

They have influence with and over quite a few groups/militias. Quds has been supplying, funding (partly with Obama bucks), and training them for a long time.

Will this event spur them to do anything more than they have already done? I concur with your assessment above. But if things really do escalate, I can only put that in the context of suicide missions. The only reason that they haven't done more to Israel or the US is they go right up to the line where they think we will kill them if they keep at it. Unfortunately for everyone, that line has moved too far too often.

While I foresee some unfortunate events, I do NOT see WW3. A few moments ago I started counting references to it and there were so many I stopped. I am not sure if the left really believes that or they are just pumping out as much click bait as the internet can handle.

There are probably a lot of decent Iranians dreading what will happen next, and when it does they will look to the sky and wonder when some awful shit will start raining down. While we can kill their leaders - and that is EXACTLY what I think we should do to anyone and everyone who orders any action against us, starting with the top of the chain of command - real change is up to Iranians.

Below is a bit by Thomas Friedman. He generally has a thoughtlessness that I loathe, and his final conclusion is meandering Demo-party drivel. However, in between there is a fair amount I am surprised he acknowledged because it goes against the grain of Obama/Kerry agenda. There are a number of nuances that has me wondering if current events may lead to some (more) glaring rifts between Jews that align largely with Israel (as Friedman certainly does) and the rest of the Demo party. It would be Ironic that with killing Soleimani Trump would have driven a wedge to increase the divide. As events play out I also wonder what happens to the many Iranians and Sunnis that have settled in America but have voted for the left?

Trump Kills Iran's Most Overrated Warrior

Trump Kills Iran’s Most Overrated Warrior
By Thomas L. Friedman

Suleimani pushed his country to build an empire, but drove it into the ground instead.

One day they may name a street after President Trump in Tehran. Why? Because Trump just ordered the assassination of possibly the dumbest man in Iran and the most overrated strategist in the Middle East: Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani.

Think of the miscalculations this guy made. In 2015, the United States and the major European powers agreed to lift virtually all their sanctions on Iran, many dating back to 1979, in return for Iran halting its nuclear weapons program for a mere 15 years, but still maintaining the right to have a peaceful nuclear program. It was a great deal for Iran. Its economy grew by over 12 percent the next year. And what did Suleimani do with that windfall?

He and Iran’s supreme leader launched an aggressive regional imperial project that made Iran and its proxies the de facto controlling power in Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad and Sana. This freaked out U.S. allies in the Sunni Arab world and Israel — and they pressed the Trump administration to respond. Trump himself was eager to tear up any treaty forged by President Obama, so he exited the nuclear deal and imposed oil sanctions on Iran that have now shrunk the Iranian economy by almost 10 percent and sent unemployment over 16 percent.

All that for the pleasure of saying that Tehran can call the shots in Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad and Sana. What exactly was second prize?

By severely depriving the Tehran regime of funds, the ayatollahs had to raise gasoline prices at home, triggering massive domestic protests. That required a harsh crackdown by the Iran’s clerics against their own people that left thousands jailed and killed, further weakening the legitimacy of the regime.

Then Mr. “Military Genius” Suleimani decided that, having propped up the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and helping to kill 500,000 Syrians in the process, he would overreach again and try to put direct pressure on Israel. He would do this by trying to transfer precision-guided rockets from Iran to Iranian proxy forces in Lebanon and Syria.

Alas, Suleimani discovered that fighting Israel — specifically, its combined air force, special forces, intelligence and cyber — is not like fighting the Nusra front or the Islamic State. The Israelis hit back hard, sending a whole bunch of Iranians home from Syria in caskets and hammering their proxies as far away as Western Iraq.

Indeed, Israeli intelligence had so penetrated Suleimani’s Quds Force and its proxies that Suleimani would land a plane with precision munitions in Syria at 5 p.m., and the Israeli air force would blow it up by 5:30 p.m. Suleimani’s men were like fish in a barrel. If Iran had a free press and a real parliament, he would have been fired for colossal mismanagement.

But it gets better, or actually worse, for Suleimani. Many of his obituaries say that he led the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq, in tacit alliance with America. Well, that’s true. But what they omit is that Suleimani’s, and Iran’s, overreaching in Iraq helped to produce the Islamic State in the first place.

It was Suleimani and his Quds Force pals who pushed Iraq’s Shiite prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, to push Sunnis out of the Iraqi government and army, stop paying salaries to Sunni soldiers, kill and arrest large numbers of peaceful Sunni protesters and generally turn Iraq into a Shiite-dominated sectarian state. The Islamic State was the counterreaction.

Finally, it was Suleimani’s project of making Iran the imperial power in the Middle East that turned Iran into the most hated power in the Middle East for many of the young, rising pro-democracy forces — both Sunnis and Shiites — in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.

As the Iranian-American scholar Ray Takeyh pointed out in a wise essay in Politico, in recent years “Soleimani began expanding Iran’s imperial frontiers. For the first time in its history, Iran became a true regional power, stretching its influence from the banks of the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. Soleimani understood that Persians would not be willing to die in distant battlefields for the sake of Arabs, so he focused on recruiting Arabs and Afghans as an auxiliary force. He often boasted that he could create a militia in little time and deploy it against Iran’s various enemies.”

It was precisely those Suleimani proxies — Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq, and the Houthis in Yemen — that created pro-Iranian Shiite states-within-states in all of these countries. And it was precisely these states-within-states that helped to prevent any of these countries from cohering, fostered massive corruption and kept these countries from developing infrastructure — schools, roads, electricity.

And therefore it was Suleimani and his proxies — his “kingmakers” in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq — who increasingly came to be seen, and hated, as imperial powers in the region, even more so than Trump’s America. This triggered popular, authentic, bottom-up democracy movements in Lebanon and Iraq that involved Sunnis and Shiites locking arms together to demand noncorrupt, nonsectarian democratic governance.

On Nov. 27, Iraqi Shiites — yes, Iraqi Shiites — burned down the Iranian consulate in Najaf, Iraq, removing the Iranian flag from the building and putting an Iraqi flag in its place. That was after Iraqi Shiites, in September 2018, set the Iranian consulate in Basra ablaze, shouting condemnations of Iran’s interference in Iraqi politics.

The whole “protest” against the United States Embassy compound in Baghdad last week was almost certainly a Suleimani-staged operation to make it look as if Iraqis wanted America out when in fact it was the other way around. The protesters were paid pro-Iranian militiamen. No one in Baghdad was fooled by this.

In a way, it’s what got Suleimani killed. He so wanted to cover his failures in Iraq he decided to start provoking the Americans there by shelling their forces, hoping they would overreact, kill Iraqis and turn them against the United States. Trump, rather than taking the bait, killed Suleimani instead.

I have no idea whether this was wise or what will be the long-term implications. But here are two things I do know about the Middle East.

First, often in the Middle East the opposite of “bad” is not “good.” The opposite of bad often turns out to be “disorder.” Just because you take out a really bad actor like Suleimani doesn’t mean a good actor, or a good change in policy, comes in his wake. Suleimani is part of a system called the Islamic Revolution in Iran. That revolution has managed to use oil money and violence to stay in power since 1979 — and that is Iran’s tragedy, a tragedy that the death of one Iranian general will not change.

Today’s Iran is the heir to a great civilization and the home of an enormously talented people and significant culture. Wherever Iranians go in the world today, they thrive as scientists, doctors, artists, writers and filmmakers — except in the Islamic Republic of Iran, whose most famous exports are suicide bombing, cyberterrorism and proxy militia leaders. The very fact that Suleimani was probably the most famous Iranian in the region speaks to the utter emptiness of this regime, and how it has wasted the lives of two generations of Iranians by looking for dignity in all the wrong places and in all the wrong ways.

The other thing I know is that in the Middle East all important politics happens the morning after the morning after.

Yes, in the coming days there will be noisy protests in Iran, the burning of American flags and much crying for the “martyr.” The morning after the morning after? There will be a thousand quiet conversations inside Iran that won’t get reported. They will be about the travesty that is their own government and how it has squandered so much of Iran’s wealth and talent on an imperial project that has made Iran hated in the Middle East.

And yes, the morning after, America’s Sunni Arab allies will quietly celebrate Suleimani’s death, but we must never forget that it is the dysfunction of many of the Sunni Arab regimes — their lack of freedom, modern education and women’s empowerment — that made them so weak that Iran was able to take them over from the inside with its proxies.

I write these lines while flying over New Zealand, where the smoke from forest fires 2,500 miles away over eastern Australia can be seen and felt. Mother Nature doesn’t know Suleimani’s name, but everyone in the Arab world is going to know her name. Because the Middle East, particularly Iran, is becoming an environmental disaster area — running out of water, with rising desertification and overpopulation. If governments there don’t stop fighting and come together to build resilience against climate change — rather than celebrating self-promoting military frauds who conquer failed states and make them fail even more — they’re all doomed.

 

[Alphatreedog]

They have influence with and over quite a few groups/militias. Quds has been supplying, funding (partly with Obama bucks), and training them for a long time.

Will this event spur them to do anything more than they have already done? I concur with your assessment above. But if things really do escalate, I can only put that in the context of suicide missions. The only reason that they haven't done more to Israel or the US is they go right up to the line where they think we will kill them if they keep at it. Unfortunately for everyone, that line has moved too far too often.

While I foresee some unfortunate events, I do NOT see WW3. A few moments ago I started counting references to it and there were so many I stopped. I am not sure if the left really believes that or they are just pumping out as much click bait as the internet can handle.

There are probably a lot of decent Iranians dreading what will happen next, and when it does they will look to the sky and wonder when some awful shit will start raining down. While we can kill their leaders - and that is EXACTLY what I think we should do to anyone and everyone who orders any action against us, starting with the top of the chain of command - real change is up to Iranians.

Below is a bit by Thomas Friedman. He generally has a thoughtlessness that I loathe, and his final conclusion is meandering Demo-party drivel. However, in between there is a fair amount I am surprised he acknowledged because it goes against the grain of Obama/Kerry agenda. There are a number of nuances that has me wondering if current events may lead to some (more) glaring rifts between Jews that align largely with Israel (as Friedman certainly does) and the rest of the Demo party. It would be Ironic that with killing Soleimani Trump would have driven a wedge to increase the divide. As events play out I also wonder what happens to the many Iranians and Sunnis that have settled in America but have voted for the left?

Trump Kills Iran's Most Overrated Warrior

Trump Kills Iran’s Most Overrated Warrior
By Thomas L. Friedman

Suleimani pushed his country to build an empire, but drove it into the ground instead.

One day they may name a street after President Trump in Tehran. Why? Because Trump just ordered the assassination of possibly the dumbest man in Iran and the most overrated strategist in the Middle East: Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani.

Think of the miscalculations this guy made. In 2015, the United States and the major European powers agreed to lift virtually all their sanctions on Iran, many dating back to 1979, in return for Iran halting its nuclear weapons program for a mere 15 years, but still maintaining the right to have a peaceful nuclear program. It was a great deal for Iran. Its economy grew by over 12 percent the next year. And what did Suleimani do with that windfall?

He and Iran’s supreme leader launched an aggressive regional imperial project that made Iran and its proxies the de facto controlling power in Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad and Sana. This freaked out U.S. allies in the Sunni Arab world and Israel — and they pressed the Trump administration to respond. Trump himself was eager to tear up any treaty forged by President Obama, so he exited the nuclear deal and imposed oil sanctions on Iran that have now shrunk the Iranian economy by almost 10 percent and sent unemployment over 16 percent.

All that for the pleasure of saying that Tehran can call the shots in Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad and Sana. What exactly was second prize?

By severely depriving the Tehran regime of funds, the ayatollahs had to raise gasoline prices at home, triggering massive domestic protests. That required a harsh crackdown by the Iran’s clerics against their own people that left thousands jailed and killed, further weakening the legitimacy of the regime.

Then Mr. “Military Genius” Suleimani decided that, having propped up the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and helping to kill 500,000 Syrians in the process, he would overreach again and try to put direct pressure on Israel. He would do this by trying to transfer precision-guided rockets from Iran to Iranian proxy forces in Lebanon and Syria.

Alas, Suleimani discovered that fighting Israel — specifically, its combined air force, special forces, intelligence and cyber — is not like fighting the Nusra front or the Islamic State. The Israelis hit back hard, sending a whole bunch of Iranians home from Syria in caskets and hammering their proxies as far away as Western Iraq.

Indeed, Israeli intelligence had so penetrated Suleimani’s Quds Force and its proxies that Suleimani would land a plane with precision munitions in Syria at 5 p.m., and the Israeli air force would blow it up by 5:30 p.m. Suleimani’s men were like fish in a barrel. If Iran had a free press and a real parliament, he would have been fired for colossal mismanagement.

But it gets better, or actually worse, for Suleimani. Many of his obituaries say that he led the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq, in tacit alliance with America. Well, that’s true. But what they omit is that Suleimani’s, and Iran’s, overreaching in Iraq helped to produce the Islamic State in the first place.

It was Suleimani and his Quds Force pals who pushed Iraq’s Shiite prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, to push Sunnis out of the Iraqi government and army, stop paying salaries to Sunni soldiers, kill and arrest large numbers of peaceful Sunni protesters and generally turn Iraq into a Shiite-dominated sectarian state. The Islamic State was the counterreaction.

Finally, it was Suleimani’s project of making Iran the imperial power in the Middle East that turned Iran into the most hated power in the Middle East for many of the young, rising pro-democracy forces — both Sunnis and Shiites — in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.

As the Iranian-American scholar Ray Takeyh pointed out in a wise essay in Politico, in recent years “Soleimani began expanding Iran’s imperial frontiers. For the first time in its history, Iran became a true regional power, stretching its influence from the banks of the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. Soleimani understood that Persians would not be willing to die in distant battlefields for the sake of Arabs, so he focused on recruiting Arabs and Afghans as an auxiliary force. He often boasted that he could create a militia in little time and deploy it against Iran’s various enemies.”

It was precisely those Suleimani proxies — Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq, and the Houthis in Yemen — that created pro-Iranian Shiite states-within-states in all of these countries. And it was precisely these states-within-states that helped to prevent any of these countries from cohering, fostered massive corruption and kept these countries from developing infrastructure — schools, roads, electricity.

And therefore it was Suleimani and his proxies — his “kingmakers” in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq — who increasingly came to be seen, and hated, as imperial powers in the region, even more so than Trump’s America. This triggered popular, authentic, bottom-up democracy movements in Lebanon and Iraq that involved Sunnis and Shiites locking arms together to demand noncorrupt, nonsectarian democratic governance.

On Nov. 27, Iraqi Shiites — yes, Iraqi Shiites — burned down the Iranian consulate in Najaf, Iraq, removing the Iranian flag from the building and putting an Iraqi flag in its place. That was after Iraqi Shiites, in September 2018, set the Iranian consulate in Basra ablaze, shouting condemnations of Iran’s interference in Iraqi politics.

The whole “protest” against the United States Embassy compound in Baghdad last week was almost certainly a Suleimani-staged operation to make it look as if Iraqis wanted America out when in fact it was the other way around. The protesters were paid pro-Iranian militiamen. No one in Baghdad was fooled by this.

In a way, it’s what got Suleimani killed. He so wanted to cover his failures in Iraq he decided to start provoking the Americans there by shelling their forces, hoping they would overreact, kill Iraqis and turn them against the United States. Trump, rather than taking the bait, killed Suleimani instead.

I have no idea whether this was wise or what will be the long-term implications. But here are two things I do know about the Middle East.

First, often in the Middle East the opposite of “bad” is not “good.” The opposite of bad often turns out to be “disorder.” Just because you take out a really bad actor like Suleimani doesn’t mean a good actor, or a good change in policy, comes in his wake. Suleimani is part of a system called the Islamic Revolution in Iran. That revolution has managed to use oil money and violence to stay in power since 1979 — and that is Iran’s tragedy, a tragedy that the death of one Iranian general will not change.

Today’s Iran is the heir to a great civilization and the home of an enormously talented people and significant culture. Wherever Iranians go in the world today, they thrive as scientists, doctors, artists, writers and filmmakers — except in the Islamic Republic of Iran, whose most famous exports are suicide bombing, cyberterrorism and proxy militia leaders. The very fact that Suleimani was probably the most famous Iranian in the region speaks to the utter emptiness of this regime, and how it has wasted the lives of two generations of Iranians by looking for dignity in all the wrong places and in all the wrong ways.

The other thing I know is that in the Middle East all important politics happens the morning after the morning after.

Yes, in the coming days there will be noisy protests in Iran, the burning of American flags and much crying for the “martyr.” The morning after the morning after? There will be a thousand quiet conversations inside Iran that won’t get reported. They will be about the travesty that is their own government and how it has squandered so much of Iran’s wealth and talent on an imperial project that has made Iran hated in the Middle East.

And yes, the morning after, America’s Sunni Arab allies will quietly celebrate Suleimani’s death, but we must never forget that it is the dysfunction of many of the Sunni Arab regimes — their lack of freedom, modern education and women’s empowerment — that made them so weak that Iran was able to take them over from the inside with its proxies.

I write these lines while flying over New Zealand, where the smoke from forest fires 2,500 miles away over eastern Australia can be seen and felt. Mother Nature doesn’t know Suleimani’s name, but everyone in the Arab world is going to know her name. Because the Middle East, particularly Iran, is becoming an environmental disaster area — running out of water, with rising desertification and overpopulation. If governments there don’t stop fighting and come together to build resilience against climate change — rather than celebrating self-promoting military frauds who conquer failed states and make them fail even more — they’re all doomed.

I honestly believe that if we continue a zero tolerance , cut the head off the snake response that this shit stops . Just seeing a rocket attack against Iraqi bas housing US Military . HVT2 has entered the game .

 

[gunman_7]

The Kremlin has officially condemned the airstrike.

Who's Russia's Agent Now? Moscow Sides With Democrats in Condemning Soleimani Hit

pjmedia.com

 

[MosesTheTank]

So, if the Obozo clan is advising Iran, what are they doing with NoKo, China, and Russia.

I mean, it's not at all like they don't have close friends in high places with those folks, too...

I think that's the answer to "WTF is going on in the world?"

One Worlder subversion of the national interest, with a side dish of Sedition.

Traitors all; hanging's too good.

Re: Iran; Rouhani keeps making threats about attacks from unexpected places. I think they'll be from IRGC sleeper cells in the USA, who came in compliments of the Democrats through the Southern Border, obtained citizenship, and arming themselves, compliments of that 2A the Democrats keep claiming they need to undermine.

I keep my powder dry, but I'm not interested in facing off against my government. I think I'll be busy enough defending my home and family from foreign infiltrators in our midst. IMHO, the threat will be coming from a lot nearer than DC, etc.

Greg

Greg,

You have a lot packed into those comments. It's much more than having contacts in politically exotic places: NoKo, China, et al, and the left all have the same ideological progenitors.

Color me shocked if there aren't sleeper cells in the US. I wonder if some the hysteria shrieking from the left is due to some worry about the law of unintended consequences. While the thought of anything bad happening to my countrymen is a somber feeling, I think the left is worrying more about policy changes Americans may support if such events occur.

It could get very complicated before it gets simple.

MTT

 

[Alphatreedog]

The Kremlin has officially condemned the airstrike.

Who's Russia's Agent Now? Moscow Sides With Democrats in Condemning Soleimani Hit

pjmedia.com

I guess it's only ok when you're blowin airliners out of the sky full of civilians in Ukraine . Russia the World's new moral authority . Who knew ?

 

[gunman_7]

I guess it's only ok when you're blowin airliners out of the sky full of civilians in Ukraine . Russia the World's new moral authority . Who knew ?

Man, ain't that the truth of it.

 

[FS1]

The IRGC is more in charge of Iran than the Ayatollah. By killing the #1 IRGC dirtbag we may have done the Iranian Gov a big favor. Whenever a leader like this dies it leaves a vacuum where the wanna Be's start vying for power. I am not fully aware of the dynamics of their leadership chain, but I think it's likely been destabilized. Thus providing opportunity for a change in philosophy.

Where do we go from here? This is yet to be seen. Do they want a toe to toe war with the US with Trump driving. I do not think so. Does Russia or China want that, I don't think so. It will be a bigger surprise to me if things get crazy, than if they don't. The one thing I know or am pretty sure I know is that many are not sleeping well over there. To them Trump is a wild card. He does not play by their rules. He is old school, go big or stay home.

They might convince a few to strap on some Semtex and and go all pink mist. But if you have ever noticed, the guys buying the vest's are not real prone to wearing them. So I think many of these effers in leadership, maybe, just maybe, are having what could be called a moment of clarity right now. Time will tell. But if they push Trump to war? I think He will give them more war than they ever thought possible. JMHO

 

[THEIS]

Hi,

Were the drone pilots tired or something....
Why did we not use this funeral to create the need for more funerals...

Former Iraqi Prime minster Nouri Al Maliki, current Nat Sec adviser Falih Al Fayad, Head of Badr organization Hadi Al Amry all present at Qasim Sulaimani and Abu Mahdi Al muhandis funeral in Baghdad.

Sincerely,
Theis

 

[Veer_G]

Hi,

Were the drone pilots tired or something....
Why did we not use this funeral to create the need for more funerals...

Former Iraqi Prime minster Nouri Al Maliki, current Nat Sec adviser Falih Al Fayad, Head of Badr organization Hadi Al Amry all present at Qasim Sulaimani and Abu Mahdi Al muhandis funeral in Baghdad.


View attachment 7216749
View attachment 7216750

Sincerely,
Theis

Because we still don't play by their rules.

 

[FS1]

Because we still don't play by their rules.

But I’ll they are wondering...am I next.

 

[Threadcutter308]

Hi,

Were the drone pilots tired or something....
Why did we not use this funeral to create the need for more funerals...

Former Iraqi Prime minster Nouri Al Maliki, current Nat Sec adviser Falih Al Fayad, Head of Badr organization Hadi Al Amry all present at Qasim Sulaimani and Abu Mahdi Al muhandis funeral in Baghdad.


View attachment 7216749
View attachment 7216750

Sincerely,
Theis

Interesting contrast to a few decades ago.............

 

[MarinePMI]

But I’ll they are wondering...am I next.

Fear is a powerful motivator, that's for sure...

 

[Spblademaker]

It won’t be long before the Dems make this scum out to look like a champion against global warming and a humanitarian.

 

[Mwalex]

It won’t be long before the Dems make this scum out to look like a champion against global warming and a humanitarian.

Spot on but that is because the Dems are exactly the same as the fellow that was just droned.

 

[MosesTheTank]

@Greg Langelius * , About those borders and sleeper cells...


Trump administration warns Congress Iran could retaliate against US 'within weeks'

...

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Mark Milley publicly addressed the issue of potential retaliation from Iran Friday. When asked whether there is now a risk to US safety in the region, Milley bluntly said, "Damn right there is risk."

Officials from the National Security Council, State Department, Pentagon and intelligence agencies echoed that concern during classified briefings Friday, making it clear that it is not a question of if Iran will respond, but when, where and how, a source with knowledge of what was discussed told CNN.

National security officials were blunt as they described a range of retaliatory possibilities inside the US and abroad. The goal, one administration official familiar with the briefing said, was to make sure lawmakers were "cleared-eyed" about the possibilities for Iranian retaliation and that nothing was sugar coated.

The official told CNN that the administration wanted to make it clear it couldn't rule out retaliation within the next few weeks -- or even months -- given how Iran historically has responded to what it views as acts of aggression against the regime.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Saturday that the United States committed a "grave mistake" in killing Soleimani and that Americans "will face the consequences of this criminal act not only today, but also in the coming years."

Administration officials confirmed the existence but not the number or locations of Iranian proxy actors in the Western Hemisphere -- both inside the US and below the southern border -- and warned of attacks possibly coming from Iranian-trained Lebanese Hezbollah, which has sleeper cells in US and European cities, the source familiar with the briefing said.

...

 

[chrome]

 

[FS1]

New Sheriff in Town

 

[Veer_G]

It won’t be long before the Dems make this scum out to look like a champion against global warming and a humanitarian.

 

[MarinePMI]

Dinnitdunuffin...

 

[armorpl8chikn]

Studying for his GED.

 

[P-Squared]

'a source with knowledge of what was discussed told CNN ' WTF, why are these traitors still alive? These leakers need to be dealt with and with extreme prejudice.

 

[ubettcha]

 

[Darayavaus]

DDMJ

 

[pmclaine]

They have influence with and over quite a few groups/militias. Quds has been supplying, funding (partly with Obama bucks), and training them for a long time.

Will this event spur them to do anything more than they have already done? I concur with your assessment above. But if things really do escalate, I can only put that in the context of suicide missions. The only reason that they haven't done more to Israel or the US is they go right up to the line where they think we will kill them if they keep at it. Unfortunately for everyone, that line has moved too far too often.

While I foresee some unfortunate events, I do NOT see WW3. A few moments ago I started counting references to it and there were so many I stopped. I am not sure if the left really believes that or they are just pumping out as much click bait as the internet can handle.

There are probably a lot of decent Iranians dreading what will happen next, and when it does they will look to the sky and wonder when some awful shit will start raining down. While we can kill their leaders - and that is EXACTLY what I think we should do to anyone and everyone who orders any action against us, starting with the top of the chain of command - real change is up to Iranians.

Below is a bit by Thomas Friedman. He generally has a thoughtlessness that I loathe, and his final conclusion is meandering Demo-party drivel. However, in between there is a fair amount I am surprised he acknowledged because it goes against the grain of Obama/Kerry agenda. There are a number of nuances that has me wondering if current events may lead to some (more) glaring rifts between Jews that align largely with Israel (as Friedman certainly does) and the rest of the Demo party. It would be Ironic that with killing Soleimani Trump would have driven a wedge to increase the divide. As events play out I also wonder what happens to the many Iranians and Sunnis that have settled in America but have voted for the left?

Trump Kills Iran's Most Overrated Warrior

Trump Kills Iran’s Most Overrated Warrior
By Thomas L. Friedman

Suleimani pushed his country to build an empire, but drove it into the ground instead.

One day they may name a street after President Trump in Tehran. Why? Because Trump just ordered the assassination of possibly the dumbest man in Iran and the most overrated strategist in the Middle East: Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani.

Think of the miscalculations this guy made. In 2015, the United States and the major European powers agreed to lift virtually all their sanctions on Iran, many dating back to 1979, in return for Iran halting its nuclear weapons program for a mere 15 years, but still maintaining the right to have a peaceful nuclear program. It was a great deal for Iran. Its economy grew by over 12 percent the next year. And what did Suleimani do with that windfall?

He and Iran’s supreme leader launched an aggressive regional imperial project that made Iran and its proxies the de facto controlling power in Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad and Sana. This freaked out U.S. allies in the Sunni Arab world and Israel — and they pressed the Trump administration to respond. Trump himself was eager to tear up any treaty forged by President Obama, so he exited the nuclear deal and imposed oil sanctions on Iran that have now shrunk the Iranian economy by almost 10 percent and sent unemployment over 16 percent.

All that for the pleasure of saying that Tehran can call the shots in Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad and Sana. What exactly was second prize?

By severely depriving the Tehran regime of funds, the ayatollahs had to raise gasoline prices at home, triggering massive domestic protests. That required a harsh crackdown by the Iran’s clerics against their own people that left thousands jailed and killed, further weakening the legitimacy of the regime.

Then Mr. “Military Genius” Suleimani decided that, having propped up the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and helping to kill 500,000 Syrians in the process, he would overreach again and try to put direct pressure on Israel. He would do this by trying to transfer precision-guided rockets from Iran to Iranian proxy forces in Lebanon and Syria.

Alas, Suleimani discovered that fighting Israel — specifically, its combined air force, special forces, intelligence and cyber — is not like fighting the Nusra front or the Islamic State. The Israelis hit back hard, sending a whole bunch of Iranians home from Syria in caskets and hammering their proxies as far away as Western Iraq.

Indeed, Israeli intelligence had so penetrated Suleimani’s Quds Force and its proxies that Suleimani would land a plane with precision munitions in Syria at 5 p.m., and the Israeli air force would blow it up by 5:30 p.m. Suleimani’s men were like fish in a barrel. If Iran had a free press and a real parliament, he would have been fired for colossal mismanagement.

But it gets better, or actually worse, for Suleimani. Many of his obituaries say that he led the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq, in tacit alliance with America. Well, that’s true. But what they omit is that Suleimani’s, and Iran’s, overreaching in Iraq helped to produce the Islamic State in the first place.

It was Suleimani and his Quds Force pals who pushed Iraq’s Shiite prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, to push Sunnis out of the Iraqi government and army, stop paying salaries to Sunni soldiers, kill and arrest large numbers of peaceful Sunni protesters and generally turn Iraq into a Shiite-dominated sectarian state. The Islamic State was the counterreaction.

Finally, it was Suleimani’s project of making Iran the imperial power in the Middle East that turned Iran into the most hated power in the Middle East for many of the young, rising pro-democracy forces — both Sunnis and Shiites — in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.

As the Iranian-American scholar Ray Takeyh pointed out in a wise essay in Politico, in recent years “Soleimani began expanding Iran’s imperial frontiers. For the first time in its history, Iran became a true regional power, stretching its influence from the banks of the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. Soleimani understood that Persians would not be willing to die in distant battlefields for the sake of Arabs, so he focused on recruiting Arabs and Afghans as an auxiliary force. He often boasted that he could create a militia in little time and deploy it against Iran’s various enemies.”

It was precisely those Suleimani proxies — Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq, and the Houthis in Yemen — that created pro-Iranian Shiite states-within-states in all of these countries. And it was precisely these states-within-states that helped to prevent any of these countries from cohering, fostered massive corruption and kept these countries from developing infrastructure — schools, roads, electricity.

And therefore it was Suleimani and his proxies — his “kingmakers” in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq — who increasingly came to be seen, and hated, as imperial powers in the region, even more so than Trump’s America. This triggered popular, authentic, bottom-up democracy movements in Lebanon and Iraq that involved Sunnis and Shiites locking arms together to demand noncorrupt, nonsectarian democratic governance.

On Nov. 27, Iraqi Shiites — yes, Iraqi Shiites — burned down the Iranian consulate in Najaf, Iraq, removing the Iranian flag from the building and putting an Iraqi flag in its place. That was after Iraqi Shiites, in September 2018, set the Iranian consulate in Basra ablaze, shouting condemnations of Iran’s interference in Iraqi politics.

The whole “protest” against the United States Embassy compound in Baghdad last week was almost certainly a Suleimani-staged operation to make it look as if Iraqis wanted America out when in fact it was the other way around. The protesters were paid pro-Iranian militiamen. No one in Baghdad was fooled by this.

In a way, it’s what got Suleimani killed. He so wanted to cover his failures in Iraq he decided to start provoking the Americans there by shelling their forces, hoping they would overreact, kill Iraqis and turn them against the United States. Trump, rather than taking the bait, killed Suleimani instead.

I have no idea whether this was wise or what will be the long-term implications. But here are two things I do know about the Middle East.

First, often in the Middle East the opposite of “bad” is not “good.” The opposite of bad often turns out to be “disorder.” Just because you take out a really bad actor like Suleimani doesn’t mean a good actor, or a good change in policy, comes in his wake. Suleimani is part of a system called the Islamic Revolution in Iran. That revolution has managed to use oil money and violence to stay in power since 1979 — and that is Iran’s tragedy, a tragedy that the death of one Iranian general will not change.

Today’s Iran is the heir to a great civilization and the home of an enormously talented people and significant culture. Wherever Iranians go in the world today, they thrive as scientists, doctors, artists, writers and filmmakers — except in the Islamic Republic of Iran, whose most famous exports are suicide bombing, cyberterrorism and proxy militia leaders. The very fact that Suleimani was probably the most famous Iranian in the region speaks to the utter emptiness of this regime, and how it has wasted the lives of two generations of Iranians by looking for dignity in all the wrong places and in all the wrong ways.

The other thing I know is that in the Middle East all important politics happens the morning after the morning after.

Yes, in the coming days there will be noisy protests in Iran, the burning of American flags and much crying for the “martyr.” The morning after the morning after? There will be a thousand quiet conversations inside Iran that won’t get reported. They will be about the travesty that is their own government and how it has squandered so much of Iran’s wealth and talent on an imperial project that has made Iran hated in the Middle East.

And yes, the morning after, America’s Sunni Arab allies will quietly celebrate Suleimani’s death, but we must never forget that it is the dysfunction of many of the Sunni Arab regimes — their lack of freedom, modern education and women’s empowerment — that made them so weak that Iran was able to take them over from the inside with its proxies.

I write these lines while flying over New Zealand, where the smoke from forest fires 2,500 miles away over eastern Australia can be seen and felt. Mother Nature doesn’t know Suleimani’s name, but everyone in the Arab world is going to know her name. Because the Middle East, particularly Iran, is becoming an environmental disaster area — running out of water, with rising desertification and overpopulation. If governments there don’t stop fighting and come together to build resilience against climate change — rather than celebrating self-promoting military frauds who conquer failed states and make them fail even more — they’re all doomed.

He had me until he brought up climate change....

 

[pmclaine]

I guess it's only ok when you're blowin airliners out of the sky full of civilians in Ukraine . Russia the World's new moral authority . Who knew ?

Just jealous he has to resort to clandestine poisoning in British Pubs and cant use shit that slices cars and occupants to pieces for all the world to see.

 

[pmclaine]

The IRGC is more in charge of Iran than the Ayatollah. By killing the #1 IRGC dirtbag we may have done the Iranian Gov a big favor. Whenever a leader like this dies it leaves a vacuum where the wanna Be's start vying for power. I am not fully aware of the dynamics of their leadership chain, but I think it's likely been destabilized. Thus providing opportunity for a change in philosophy.

Where do we go from here? This is yet to be seen. Do they want a toe to toe war with the US with Trump driving. I do not think so. Does Russia or China want that, I don't think so. It will be a bigger surprise to me if things get crazy, than if they don't. The one thing I know or am pretty sure I know is that many are not sleeping well over there. To them Trump is a wild card. He does not play by their rules. He is old school, go big or stay home.

They might convince a few to strap on some Semtex and and go all pink mist. But if you have ever noticed, the guys buying the vest's are not real prone to wearing them. So I think many of these effers in leadership, maybe, just maybe, are having what could be called a moment of clarity right now. Time will tell. But if they push Trump to war? I think He will give them more war than they ever thought possible. JMHO

Guessing that Sulimani is the insecure type that ensure she is surrounded by "Go Along" sycophants that will not challenge his authority while killing off any leader that exhibits ambition and competence as they may challenge his power.

What comes after will be weak Im guessing.

 

[pmclaine]

Hi,

Were the drone pilots tired or something....
Why did we not use this funeral to create the need for more funerals...

Former Iraqi Prime minster Nouri Al Maliki, current Nat Sec adviser Falih Al Fayad, Head of Badr organization Hadi Al Amry all present at Qasim Sulaimani and Abu Mahdi Al muhandis funeral in Baghdad.


View attachment 7216749
View attachment 7216750

Sincerely,
Theis

Guessing there were a lot of tight assholes, perhaps a bit of forehead sweat and frequent glances to the heavens......

Perhaps Trump is playing cat to the mouse...just letting them worry a little.

"Whats that noise? Was that a Drone?"

 

[Darayavaus]

What comes after will be weak Im guessing.

the odds-on favorite replacement:

 

[pmclaine]

the odds-on favorite replacement:

Like I said...weak, ineffective and achieved position beyond the abilities of his talents.

 

[Darayavaus]

Like I said...weak, ineffective and achieved position beyond the abilities of his talents.

the little guy tried his damnest to make "death to America" a reality, though.

 

[pmclaine]

the little guy tried his damnest to make "death to America" a reality, though.

Now he is fighting to keep his ass from being charged with treason and his neck out of a noose.

 

[Nik H]

Now he is fighting to keep his ass from being charged with treason and his neck out of a noose.

I would take the noose when reminded by this

 

[pmclaine]

I would take the noose when reminded by this

View attachment 7217265

Michelle sits like I would sit.

Ever notice all these lib guys like Biden, Obama, Kerry all sit with their legs crossed like Melania?

I cant even do that shit and looking at it cant even imagine it would be comfortable.

Im not a chubby thighed fat load nor am I Ron Jeremy still my legs aint crushing nuggets like that and the imagined pressure on the top knee just seems it would be too much.

At most maybe an ankle rest on a knee to examine my own footwear but knee over knee cant do it.

 

[Nik H]

Michelle sits like I would sit.

Ever notice all these lib guys like Biden, Obama, Kerry all sit with their legs crossed like Melania?

I cant even do that shit and looking at it cant even imagine it would be comfortable.

Im not a chubby thighed fat load nor am I Ron Jeremy still my legs aint crushing nuggets like that and the imagined pressure on the top knee just seems it would be too much.

At most maybe an ankle rest on a knee to examine my own footwear but knee over knee cant do it.

I am John Holmes so I have to sit like Michelle who is also like John Holmes

 

[Darayavaus]

Michelle sits like I would sit.

what a F'ing couple they were.

 

[BytorJr]

I often wonder how different life would be if Reagan would have stepped up when our barracks fell.
In my heart, that bombing was the start of the end.

I saw some special on Reagan and it came down to the cabinet vote I think it was split 50/50 and he didn’t retaliate. But wrote that he feared that it was not the correct response.

Remember too this was less than 10 years (less than Gulf War and Iraqi Freedom)since we had officially left Vietnam and the military was still shambles

 

[ubettcha]

 

[sirhrmechanic]

In Brazen Act Of Aggression, Iran Deploys Its Country Right Next To Our Aircraft Carrier

PERSIAN GULF—In what's being called a dangerous act of aggression, the country of Iran has deployed its country right next to the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, which was just minding its own business in the Persian Gulf.

babylonbee.com

 

[eca7891]

In Brazen Act Of Aggression, Iran Deploys Its Country Right Next To Our Aircraft Carrier

PERSIAN GULF—In what's being called a dangerous act of aggression, the country of Iran has deployed its country right next to the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, which was just minding its own business in the Persian Gulf.

babylonbee.com

An article from 7 months ago?

 

[DarnYankeeUSMC]

Did you read it?

An article from 7 months ago?

You probably should. Or use the new sarcasm font

 

[sirhrmechanic]

Did you read it?

You probably should. Or use the new sarcasm font

Iranian tourist killed by American strike in Baghdad

BAGHDAD — An Iranian tourist was killed by an American airstrike in Baghdad on Thursday night, further inflaming relations between the United States and Iran. The strike, which occurred at Baghdad International Airport, resulted in the death of Qassim Suleimani, a middle-aged bureaucrat who was...

www.duffelblog.com

This one is more up to date...

Sirhr

 

[eca7891]

Much better!
?