Alex Christoforou
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
The Duran’s Alex Christoforou discusses the decision to kill the chief of Iran’s elite Quds Force, Major General Qassem Soleimani, and PMF deputy commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis by a US drone at Baghdad’s airport.
Washington said that Soleimani was targeted in order to deter future attacks by Iran against US military personnel and citizens in Iraq and other places abroad. Now that the Trump White House has taken this action against an Iran state official, what happens next, in the escalating conflict between the US and Iran, is anyone’s guess.
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Trump’s unforced error, advantage neocons by The Duran
The Duran Quick Take: Episode 422. The Duran’s Alex Christoforou discusses the decision to kill the chief of Iran’s elite Quds Force, Major General Qassem Soleimani, and PMF deputy commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis by a US drone at Baghdad’s airport.
The partisan situation in Washington DC has created a scenario where Donald Trump may be forced to do anything to hold on to power, even if that means setting the Middle East – and maybe the entire world – alight.
On Friday morning, the world held its breath as news circulated that the US military had carried out a targeted assassination against senior Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani on Iraqi soil.
Soleimani was not killed on the battlefield amid a ‘glorious hail’ of gunfire, but was eliminated in a US drone strike as he was traveling in a car to Baghdad International Airport. In other words, yet another extrajudicial killing carried out by the US judge, jury and executioner in a part of the world few Americans could locate on a map.
As to be expected, the Democrats vented their fury at the killing, demanding to know why Trump had failed to seek congressional permission first. Apparently, Trump’s sworn enemies have already forgotten how Barack Obama set that unfortunate precedent back in 2012 when he indiscriminately bombed Libya back to the Stone Age without first consulting lawmakers.
Equally disturbing, however, is that the assassination was ordered by an anti-establishment American leader who had promised on the 2016 campaign trail to withdraw US military forces from hot spots around the globe. Trump sympathizers, however, could argue that an awful lot has happened in the last four years.
The pressure of partisan politics is showing
Would the United States and Iran be staring down the barrel of mutual mass destruction had Donald Trump not been under constant pressure from the Democrats since entering the White House in 2017?
Although it is exceedingly difficult to excuse cold-blooded murder for any reason, the history books hold many examples of desperate men going to desperate lengths in order to maintain their grip on the gold ring of power.
Consider, for example, the sordid story of former US President Bill Clinton, who was also hounded with the threat of impeachment over the Lewinsky affair.
On August 20, 1998, just weeks before Congress was set to vote on articles of impeachment against the philandering Democrat, Clinton ordered a cruise-missile attack on a Sudan factory on the grounds it was producing nerve gas for al-Qaeda. As it turned out, however, the destroyed factory was actually a pharmaceutical plant that employed thousands.
Werner Daum, the former German ambassador to Sudan, estimated that “several tens of thousands” of Sudanese civilians died as a result of a medicine shortage caused by that US military strike.
Ironically, the Hollywood film ‘Wag the Dog,’ which tells the story of a US president caught in a similar situation as Clinton’s, and the lengths he goes to distract public attention from his plight, was released just months before Clinton ordered the attack.
It appears that Donald Trump, no less than Bill Clinton, understands the ‘rally round the flag’ phenomenon, which says that public support increases for leaders during periods of international crisis or war. Not a very comforting thought, considering that the world is littered with weapons of mass destruction.
Presently, the entire globe is being held captive audience by the 2020 showdown, and the ending doesn’t look too promising. In fact, the rivalry may already have cost Qassem Soleimani his life, while exposing the planet to the risk of a global conflagration. Not the best way to kick off the New Year, to say the least.
Clearly, the American empire is experiencing a deep domestic political crisis that not only threatens the security and well-being of millions of Americans; it threatens the stability of the entire planet.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
Seems for once, everyone is ignoring, (or incapable of reading between the lines of) Trumps tweets. I’m getting a very different message…
Then again, if the two tweets are too subtle or cryptic, then so is this post….
Care to elaborate? I don’t use twitter.
He posted an American flag, then in a separate tweet said “Iran never won a war but never lost a negotiation!” I would unpack this further if I could pm you, or talk off-forum, but just think it through. Follow your intellect where it leads, even if its “outside the lines”. Tom Luongo posted a good piece breaking this down on the 31st. I have no interest in entering debate with the “usual suspects”, but ask yourself a couple of simple questions. 1) What has Trumps tone been in the past, when Trump is taking credit for something, and how… Read more »
I suspect I know what you mean, but given my own bias I suspect I may go way off reservation here. For one Iran never winning a war is BS. Just because the US never admitted a loss or have never suffered the kind of kicking others have through history (clearly Veitnam wasn’t harsh enough) doesn’t imply the other guy is a loser. For a war to be victorious it must be an absoute victory with the defeated wiped from the earth, yet beligerance and bullying is no more a victory than walking up and tweaking the tigers whiskers. You’ll… Read more »
Totally agree with everything you say here, except that I see the “dems” as the tool rather than the mechanic. I reject ideology out of hand. I am only interested in looking for patterns, consistency within patterns, and trajectories. I am currently reading “The Oklahoma City Bombing and the Politics of Terror” by David Hoffman, its when he leaves the “The Oklahoma City Bombing” part, and gets into the “Politics of Terror” part that it really gets good. Everyone knows “it” intellectually, but few have really internalized it, and until they do, they JUST DONT SEE “it”. The “it” being,… Read more »
I’ll agree the two party paradigm is a fallacy for similar reasons to what you say (EU commision anyone), but I’m deliberatly not putting a name to it as it isn’t so easily defined. As for ideologies I wouldn’t dismiss them out of hand, especially on a broad psychological level. Ideologies are effectively a conditioned pattern of response and behaviour to serve a higher purpose. Terrorism and ideology are psychological bedfellows often using one to justify the other. It is used to condition a people through fear into a particular response and dependence on a ‘saviour’. It is a tactic… Read more »
Oh no, you misunderstand me entirely! I don’t dismiss the effects of ideology on others AT ALL, in fact, I am fully aware that is the primary driver for most, ideology trumps (hehehe) intellect in “reading” the political tea leafs every time, and even in the religion we choose, the clothes we wear, everything we do. For the vast majority, even if their intellect recognizes that there is a problem with their tribe narrative, they will reject that idea forcibly. To not do so, creates cognitive dissonance. Trump is VERY conscious of this concept as well, and this is the… Read more »
“For one Iran never winning a war is BS” Its projection. How many wars has the US “won”? Korea? well, no that didn’t really work out. Ok, how about Vietnam? Nope. Iraq? well they still have troops there, and the country is anything but a “functioning democracy (rolleyes). Libya? Cripes, gimme a break! In their defense, they don’t really try to “win wars” that not really their goal. They set out to destroy functioning nation states, and they are pretty good at that. Its ironic, Brzezinski on Russia going into Afghanistan. “Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry… Read more »
Upvoted because it can be interpreted as pandering to the prevailing pre-prepared ideology. Its almost embarrassing.
Following Trump’s intellect gives me dizzy spells. My IQ’s just not up to it. 😉
You are just leaving yourself WIDE open here…????????
I don’t care what Trump says or not say because ultimately Trump is just a bufoon puppet for the ‘deep state’ neocons!
We got the tower demolitions and “War on Terror” during the last impeachment (actually a coup) where wifey helped with the moo sod honey trap…. and this one will probably give us WW3. Why do we always see what they (NEOCONs pushing war) are doing when there is no option to avoid conflict??…..think tank NEOCONS that do nothing but push us (US) into war for Israel. US citizens should be mad as hell when we murder like this.
Maybe time to decide where the conflict occurs. On far shores or closer to home.
The USA don’t fight a ‘War on Terror’ – They NEVER did! – They fight a ‘War Of Terror’ against the World for their deluded fascist wet dream of ‘Full Spectrum Dominance’ AKA ‘World Domination’…..and if the World dare to kneel down to their claim…..they would rather Scorch the Earth.
Time to rename those former world-dominating wet dream Trotskyites something more befitting: Neonazicons or something like that.
Hey Eric, think we have a potential customer for your new book here! Liberfacsians??????
Christoforou does not mention the obvious Trump Admin.-Israeli-Adelson-Likud relationship which is the real reason for these killings.
So Trump said that the US killed senior Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani to “prevent a war”??? As if any sane person can believe that! The US has accused Soleimani of having been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of US troops in Iraq. So? Their own fault for having sent tens of thousands of military personnel to kill Iraqis. The US has killed about 1.5 million Iraqis. According to aid agencies, the US and its cronies have killed an estimated five million people in the Middle East since the illegal US-led attack on Iraq. Aid agencies also estimate that… Read more »
Neocons want US to strike Iran. This was a strike on an Iranian terrorist in Iraq. A compromise. It is wholly inadequate. As a neocon myself I wish every government building in Iran was hit by a missile. That would solve the problem without all this concern about retaliation. Iran is retaliating anyway, regardless of US activity. Let them start it and we can finish it.
You’re a bloody moron. Disgusting, filthy Yank.
I typed a long-winded, detailed response to him asking him if he knew where Iran was on the map, its population, and if he had considered the consequences for Europe and Eurasia of displacing a population more that double that of Syria and Libya combined, and what the long-term consequences for the US might be of an alliance against them consisting of Russia, Europe, China, Turkey and India, but in the end, I deleted it. I realized, he probably cant find Iran on the map anyway.
Why bother? These neocon types are part of a death cult and act accordingly. Free-thinkers are anathema to them.
You did well to delete that response, he doesn’t deserve it. Just another ignorant yanky drunk with neocohenite propaganda shit!
Hey, we’re not all disgusting, filthy, bloody morons. Most of us are just morons, force fed the MoronStreamMedia and simply helpless to resist.
I really mean that.
One of those Fiddlers on the Roof, no doubt.
Neocons are a blight on humanity. I’m calling them neonazicons starting today.
The US and its evil pro-Al-Qaeda allies should think twice before they stumble the world into WW3. Syria which is part of the Axis of Resistance has thousands of Russian soldiers and advisers and any war in this region will not be confined to Iran or Iraq alone. It will immediately spread into the region and beyond and there will be very serious unintended consequences that can trigger it into a global war very quickly which, in turn, can easily culminate into nuclear exchange!
Alex – Trump is not a simpleton. He knows the agenda of those advising him. Also, if Russiagate has taught him anything it’s that the intelligence agencies have their own agenda and will distort the ‘intelligence’ to suit it.. No he is totally on board with this criminal recklessness being pushed by Israel-firsters. It’s like someone teasing a tiger that they know is chained up, while ignoring all the disapproving bystanders. Every day that passes Washington makes more enemies, while losing more allies. America is a declining power and one day in the not too distant future will pay a… Read more »
I’ve just read Tom Luongo’s latest post on this (4 January). It’s one of his best. He points out that while pretending to be strong, Trump is actually a wimp incapable of standing up to the neocons with which he’s surrounded himself. This is his biggest mistake and there’s no going back. I suggest everyone reads it. Incidentally I’ve noticed the Duran have stopped linking to Luongo. Alex – you and Alexander are great guys but you have a blind spot where Trump is concerned. Yes he’s a symbol of revolt against the Deep State, but just that. He’s the… Read more »
Kennedy attacked them straight on, (“I will splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the winds.”) remember the film footage of his wife trying to hold the back of his skull in place? Its a common (and fatal) mistake to think of the POTUS as an Emperor.
I referenced Luongo’s Dec. 31st piece in my second post on this thread. I’ll have to take a look at the new one.
ManintheMoon is this the Luongo piece you were referencing?
https://tomluongo.me/2020/01/03/trump-point-of-no-return/
If Trump isn’t a simpleton, he sure does one heck of an imitation.
Trump is irrelevant! murderous and satanic neocons are in total control and the world needs to deal with them if there is to be peace on earth.
Once again, Trump proves he’s a braying jackass in a middle eastern ceramics souk.
But boy, how about that Pence? Apparently, Suleimani once escorted the 9/11 hijackers in his Uber taxi all the way through Iran. Go ahead, dimocrats, Impeach the jackass, and put bobo the chimp in charge. He’ll be another natural fit for y’all. Keep the playing field level, I say.
It wasn’t “unforced”, the deep state now has him by the nads. The deep state republican vassals will join the dems to impeach him if he doesn’t do what he is told … this includes ceasing his attempts to withdraw US troops that are deployed abroad.
My view falls closer to this. Watch and wait, lets see what, if anything happens to Pompous in the coming weeks, then we will know whether this is just one more move on the chessboard, or if he really is finally bound and shackled. I think most really just have NO CLUE how deeply the power is entrenched in their country, just HOW deep and pervasive it really is. There has been SO MUCH written in the last thirty-forty years, but so many only started paying attention in 2016. Read. Read Griffen, Chussudovsky, Estulin, Hoffman, Blumenthal, Valentine, read the publications… Read more »
Well, we didn’t have to wait long. I was hoping for something else, but…wishful thinking. Don’t blame me too harshly, I have a ten year old child. With the worst scenario now a fact, its time to watch the sides being drawn up I guess. Alex looks to be doing that, I just got up and haven’t had a chance to really look at that piece yet. Back in the nineties, Brzezinski said something like (I cant find the exact quote) Turkey is a critical counterbalance to Russia/China/Iran, if you look at the last two years, there’s been an almost… Read more »
I think a large part of the problem is that Trump has been seriously misled about Iran. I have no doubt that there are intelligence people and military people who have tried to tell him the truth. Trump forgets things. Many think he has dementia. What hope is there if he cannot remember what the voices of reason told him and the neocons are louder.