A rchive Date
[ 03-01-2020 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.S ]
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[https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/towhey-attack-on-irans-terror-chief-justifiable
Attack on Iran's terror chief justifiable
Mark Towhey
Published: January 3, 2020
Iran’s “Terrorist-in-Chief,” Gen. Qasem Soleimani was killed in an overnight explosion in Iraq on Friday.
The U.S. administration confirms the explosion was the result of an American rocket attack.
While the reaction among many anti-U.S. and anti-Donald Trump personalities on social media was predictable (outrage) and apoplectic (the end of days), the truth is a bit more pedestrian
Soleimani was the commander-in-chief of Iran’s Quds Force - officially the “international wing” of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Why does Iran’s Revolutionary Guard need an international wing? To direct and execute terrorist operations abroad, of course.
As the man calling the shots in Iran’s long-lasting and ongoing international terror operations, Soleimani was a righteous target.
Making him even more so was the fact he was killed in Baghdad less than two days after rocket attacks against the U.S. embassy there killed an American.
Why was Soleimani in Baghdad - the capital city of Iran’s greatest regional nemesis - at the time?
The New Year’s Eve attack on U.S. diplomats and their security forces is generally being blamed on Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) - directly or indirectly, through complicity.
Although the PMF are nominally part of Iraq’s security infrastructure, they are Shia militias overtly backed by Iran - a de facto arm of the Quds Force Soleimani commands.
Will this unleash an immediate backlash from Iran? No doubt.
But, it’s important to remember this targeted attack against the mastermind of Iran’s international terror operations was the retaliation - not the provocation.
Iran has been poking the American bear with increasingly sharp sticks for some time, teasing out where the line in the sand might be.
Thursday night they found it.
Was this an illegal attack, as some Henny Pennys on Twitter claim? No.
Soleimani is a combatant, not a politician. He commands the Iranian unit directly responsible for multiple attacks on the U.S. and its western allies. That makes him a bonafide military target.
He is not the equivalent of U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence - a civilian politician. Soleimani is a military general and a combatant.
There is no U.S. prohibition on this direct action. Nor does it violate international laws of armed combat.
In the U.S., only Congress can declare war. But recent American law has established the president can order drone strikes against targets in foreign countries. President Barack Obama was the first to do so on an industrial scale.
U.S. law prohibits the assassination of a foreign leader. But, once again, Soleimani was not a head of state - even if he once bragged to an American general he was more powerful than Iran’s president.
One thing is certain.
Whoever takes Soleimani’s place as Iran’s new terror chief - and all those working under him - will have some sleepless nights now that it’s been demonstrated they are not safe from the consequences of their actions.
mtowhey@postmedia.com
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