The reasons and method of assassination of General Suleimani have been clarified

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Qasem Soleimani was killed in Baghdad on January 2, 2020. This event must be understood and the correct conclusions drawn from it, and urgently because it has the most direct relation to our future. Immediate.

Alas, the domestic public is not particularly good at "understanding". Until now, the murdered man is simply called an Iranian general. Yes, strictly formally, it was an Iranian general, but in 2009 he could have removed the Iranian president, albeit not alone.

Of course, strictly formally, it was just the commander of a part of the Iranian special operations forces. But in fact, he controlled a huge transnational financial empire rich enough to sponsor the entire Iranian war machine in the Middle East without receiving a single rial from the country's budget. And a gigantic network of non-state armies, one of which was, for example, Hezbollah, but was not the only one. Even Christians fought for him, he was able to win over to his side mortal enemies of Iran and all Shiites in the world - "Al-Qaeda" (banned in the Russian Federation). The Kurds, whose pacification in Iran began his military career, in Iraq hid him from their main allies - the Americans.

Yes, in terms of his official status, he was not equal to many in Iran. And in fact, he gave orders to foreign presidents as his subordinates - and they obeyed them unquestioningly.

Qasem Suleimani

Once, Kassem Suleimani was a boy trying to find at least some job to help save his peasant father from being arrested for debts. And the day before his death, the number of people who had more power than he had were fewer than the fingers on their hands. In the world, not Iran. In Iran, however, too - only Ayatollah Khamenei could dismiss him if he wanted to. But he would not have wanted to, because Suleimani was a national hero who will be remembered for many years after the name of Khamenei will be forgotten forever by everyone. Part of the national pantheon, a figure commensurate with Saladdin in the Shiite Muslim world. The man who ruled Iraq and the war in Syria at the same time. A person who is personally acquainted with Bashar al-Assad and, apparently, with Vladimir Putin. Friend of Hasan Nasrallah. In Iran, he is credited with the idea of inviting Russia to Syria. This, apparently, is not true, but the scale of Soleimani's personality gives reason for such rumors.

In the world today there is almost no personality commensurate in scale. Putin if only. Xi Jinping is still possible. Even Trump, who killed Soleimani, falls short, however, it happens that people simply kill those who are superior in their personal qualities. This is especially easy when, for no reason, from around the corner.

Suleimani would have won the Iranian presidential election dry if he wanted to. But at one time he abandoned his political career with the words: "I want to remain a soldier of the revolution." In Iran, he was called the word "sardar" - the commander. Of course, this is also one of the Iranian traditions - so to call high-ranking officers, in the press, for example. But all the commanders had surnames, but there was just one Commander in Iran. And there will be one.

It was a man of legend. Quite a scary legend, one must admit it, but a legend. Human symbol. And even his death is filled with symbols like no other. In the history of Russia, there were also co-scale personalities, for example, Ermak. But there weren't many of them. And no one had a lot of them.

He was the one who sought peace with the Americans and successfully led Iran to him, and then became the one who killed the largest number of American soldiers since Vietnam. And not on their own. He crushed American plans in Iraq and conquered Iraq for his country. He fought like no other for the reincarnation of the Persian Empire and almost won.

He was killed by a weapon specially designed for secret murders. Useless in war, but effective for covert assassinations of those who cannot defend themselves in the here and now. A weapon, which today is itself a symbol, only a symbol of another country - the United States. Crystal clear symbol.

And also lessons are contained in his death. And there are a lot of them too.

But first things first.

Shadow Commander

There is no point in retelling the biography of Qasem Suleimani. It is publicly available, including in Russian. But there are a few things worth commenting on. Going to the war with Iraq as a junior officer, Soleimani distinguished himself with such a level of courage and military ability that he received a phenomenal career growth. Joining the IRGC at 22, at thirty he already commanded a division, and received his first formation, an infantry brigade, at the age of 27. However, those who served with him noted that he retained that attitude towards human life, which is rather characteristic of a junior officer. Suleimani was always grieving about losses in his units. Then, in the eighties, he was one of the first officers in Iran to raise his voice against the "wasteful" methods of warfare practiced by the Iranians. It is possible that this influenced his style of conducting operations in the future.

After the war with Iraq ended, the Iranian authorities began to look for a way to "resolve issues" with their neighbors, not as terrible a price as it was in the war with Iraq. In addition, Iran, constantly falling under one or the other sanctions, simply did not have the money for big wars. It was logical and, most importantly, in line with the local cultural paradigm, was the creation of forces capable of waging an irregular war, exhausting and shackling the enemy, on the distant approaches to Iran. The ideal basis for such a force was the formation, erroneously referred to in the press by the Arabic word "Al-Quds". In fact, in Farsi it is called "Kods", however, it means the same thing - "Jerusalem".

From the very beginning of the war with Iraq, "Qods" waged an irregular war in Iraqi Kurdistan, and since 1982 began subversive anti-Israeli activities in Lebanon. It was then that Hezbollah was created, "riding" the anti-Israel and anti-Christian sentiments in Lebanon after the events of 1982.

After the war with Iraq, the Qods had to move to a new level. And for this he needed a new commander.

In 1998, Suleimani became such a commander. By that time, behind his shoulders were not only the battles of the Iran-Iraq war, and operations against Kurdish rebels in Iran, but also successful operations in the framework of a large-scale and bloody war on drugs on the Afghan border.

The domestic reader also knows nothing about these events, but these were large-scale and bloody events. Suleimani finally created his reputation precisely in that chaos of the war of all against all, where the Iranian military had to repel the attacks of gangs hired by drug dealers and catch bullets in the back from their side at the same time, where mountains were mined and with the help of engineering structures, paths were blocked where they had to go on raids on drug caravans, lie in ambush and win without outside help. No artillery or aircraft. In a war where checkpoints and strongholds of Iranians were systematically sieged and raided from Afghanistan, and on the streets of Iranian border cities, the drug mafia killed any military indiscriminately, even ordinary ones, even generals - and so on for years.

It was in this hell that Infantry Commander Soleimani showed himself to be a master of irregular warfare. After that, his appointment to the new post became natural.

After the appointment, Suleimani gets into the picture and gradually expands anti-Saddam operations in Iraq, as well as subversive actions against the Taliban movement (banned in the Russian Federation) in Afghanistan. He also dramatically strengthened Qods' ties with the Lebanese movement Hezbollah, securing increased Iranian assistance to the movement, including people.

But that take-off in his career, which made him one of the unofficial rulers of the Shiite world, Suleimani became thanks to the Americans. It was fighting them that made him who he was.

But that was not what the Iranians wanted, and it was not what Suleimani wanted.

As you know, after the events of September 11, 2001 in the United States, Russia provided various support to the United States in its operations in Afghanistan. It is less known that Iran provided similar support.

On the Iranian side, it was Suleimani who was then known to the Americans as Haji Kassem for interaction with the United States. It was Iran that provided the United States with the most detailed information on the location of Taliban bases and units, the same information that the Kods operatives obtained in their dangerous operations on Afghan territory. Suleimani even carried out arrests of al-Qaeda operatives in Iran and ensured their delivery to Afghanistan. As the Americans who worked with the Iranians later recalled, it was a very profitable cooperation.

Everything changed dramatically in January 2002, when US President George W. Bush, in his annual message to Congress, declared Iran to be part of an "axis of evil."

This shocked the Iranians, who already viewed the United States as an ally in the fight against the Taliban, as well as those American diplomats who collaborated with them. But it was a fact. For Suleimani himself, this was also a problem because, in a sense, he was betting on the Americans. And now they have done this trick.

The Republicans, however, did not care who helped their country in what way. They wanted to kill and destroy, by and large they were not even interested in the surrender of those countries that were designated as victims of America, they were interested in corpses, and Iran was also on the list. But - after Iraq.

In 2003, the American army crushed Iraq. Iran did not particularly protest against the collapse of its nemesis, whose aggression claimed nearly half a million Iraqi lives. Moreover, under the leadership of Soleimani, after the American invasion and occupation of Iraq, the Iranians again got in touch with their old counterparties.

True, now there was also fear in their behavior. It clearly seemed to them that their country would be next, however, at the time of the American invasion of Iraq, it was planned that way.

Few people know, but the first occupation government in Iraq was created by the Americans with the participation of Qasem Suleimani. He participated in the selection of candidates and coordinated them with the Americans. True, it was all over soon.

On the one hand, no goodwill gestures towards the United States worked. It seemed that the Yankees turned into cannibalistic fanatics, obsessed with the idea of destruction of everyone, with Iran in the first place. But on the other hand, and at the same time, it was clear that they were stuck in Iraq.

2004 is the year when the Iranians re-evaluated the situation. Now it looked different: the United States was still a maniac country that fell into insanity, but now this maniac is clearly stuck on two of his wars, waged for some unknown reason. Now, after the failure of attempts to cooperate with the Americans, another strategy has become logical - to make them stuck in a guerrilla war. And the Cods got down to business immediately. Soleimani's men massively trained various, independent Shiite groups that immediately began attacking the Americans, and Iranian henchmen in the Iraqi government intensively sabotaged American efforts to restore order. Over the course of a year, the Iranians managed to raise a powerful wave of resistance.

They also managed to seriously arm the rebels. For example, the Americans widely used armored cars protected from explosions and small arms, designated as MRAP - Mine Resistant, Ambush Protected. These vehicles protected the crews well, and the destruction of the American occupiers was a problem for the Iraqis. The Iranians very quickly created portable mines with a "strike core" warhead, set up their production and delivery to Iraq. These mines easily hit monstrous American armored cars and claimed the lives of hundreds of American soldiers. And that was also the work of Suleimani.

His activities in Iraq are efficient professionally and insidious in Persian, deserves a separate description. The Americans tried to capture it - without success. He also made mistakes - for example, the involvement of Al-Qaeda in operations against the United States ended up in attacks by its militants and on the Iraqi Shiites, which is Soleimani's personal mistake. The Americans, however, they also killed, so the mistake was not serious.

In addition to the war to weaken the United States, Soleimani was engaged in ensuring that a strong government capable of threatening Iran would never arise on the territory of Iraq, and was also successful.

The outcome of these efforts is known. In 2011, the United States officially ended its occupation of Iraq, minimizing its presence in that country. There could be no more talk of an invasion of Iran, and Iraq itself was flooded with Iraqi militias that could easily defeat the official Iraqi army, while the Iraqi government itself was directly controlled from Tehran, and Suleimani personally controlled it.

Simultaneously with the war, Soleimani was creating the economic basis for his operations. By taking control of banks and oil supplies in Iraq, and then in other places, he ensured that his military empire was self-financing. This was exactly what the Iranians wanted after the war with Iraq: the issues of their defenses were resolved, firstly, by themselves, without attracting large masses of Iranian troops, and secondly, effectively, thirdly, outside Iranian territory, and fourthly, even and free.

The outbreak of an American-inspired terrorist war in the region has made Soleimani even more in demand. In both Iraq and Syria, the brunt of the wars against terrorist groups, once created with the participation of the United States, was borne by various militias and Shiite groups created by the IRGC. In Syria, the Lebanese Hezbollah, the brainchild of the Qods, under the tutelage of Suleimani, has become the most combat-ready units. At a certain point, Soleimani turned out to be the man who ruled all the wars in Iraq and Syria at once.

The Iranians, however, lacked the resources. While they and Russia helped Assad, the entire pro-Western world was pumping terrorists with money and resources. In Iraq, the United States delayed the supply of weapons to the official Iraqi army until ISIS (banned in the Russian Federation) reached the borders assigned to it by the puppeteers from Washington, and did not strike at the terrorists until this happened. The IRGC used both its aircraft and its armored vehicles there. And if in Iraq Iranian resources were somehow enough to at least stop the offensive of terrorists, then in Syria things were going very badly. It got to the point that the routes along which the Assad family moved in everyday life began to be subjected to mortar attacks - and there was no way out.

But soon Russia appeared in Syria, the Americans in Iraq began to upset their unbelted offspring - ISIS, and Suleimani was again able to achieve success. In Russia, everyone knows about the role of the Russian Aerospace Forces, but few people know that until 2016, Iran was "taking out" almost the entire war on the ground - the Syrian army by a certain point had lost its combat effectiveness almost completely. The Iranians turned out badly and stupidly, but then there were no other troops.

In general, in the success of the fight against terror in Syria, the role of the people of Suleimani is comparable to that of Russia. Now the situation is different, Russia was able to create its own ground forces beyond the control of Iran in this country, but at the beginning of our intervention in the conflict, everything was different.

And if in our public consciousness the symbol of the Syrian turning point is a bomber with red stars on the planes, then in Iran it is a portrait of Qasem Suleimani. Commander.

In the West, he is considered a terrorist. And indeed, neither he nor his people could restrain themselves from the means. But one should not condemn them en masse - without exception, all the participants in the wars in the region, except Russia, are soiled head over heels in war crimes that they committed voluntarily and deliberately. And it is unlikely from the point of view of common sense that the Americans let ISIS fighters from Iraq to Syria before the recapture of Palmyra is anything worse than the Iranians' help to Hezbollah in obtaining missiles that are guaranteed to fly to residential areas. Israeli phosphorus bombs over Gaza are killing far more than Iranians have killed in all the years since the Islamic Revolution. And when someone gives hysterical moral assessments to everything that happens, then such a person should start from the side that he considers his own.

Israeli Air Force attack on residential areas in Gaza using white phosphorus. What's better than a bomb in your backpack? Nothing

Neither the Iranians nor Suleimani were and are not angels with wings. But against the background of the Americans and the Israelis, they are just children. It is worth remembering this when someone throws another tantrum.

Qasem Soleimani died in conditions when neither he nor his organization had fought any military actions against the United States for a long time, and when the United States had not fought any military actions against Iranian forces for a long time. He died during a long-term unspoken truce. In fact, that is why he did not hide, but calmly flew to Baghdad airport by plane, sat down, without hiding, in the car and drove through the city at night.

The idea that he behaved this way, having given the command before that to carry out indiscriminate harassing shelling of the American base, which did not lead to any serious enemy casualties, looks silly, to put it mildly.

Yes, the Americans themselves formulate the reason for his murder differently. You have to understand that their words are in any case a lie.

Qasem Soleimani was killed by a missile, unofficially called by the Americans "Ninja" - Hellfire 9X. Its specific feature is that to hit a target, instead of a warhead with explosives, it uses knives - six long blades of such a size that, when hitting a typical car, cut into pieces everyone who travels in the cabin. This weapon, specially designed for assassination, is useless in a war with a real enemy. Such missiles cannot hit armored vehicles. They are created precisely to open cars and kill their passengers.

AGM-114 Hellfire 9X. Guided missile for assassinations, not for war. One of a kind

This is symbolic. If Qasem Suleimani is a symbol of Iran, then his death is a symbol of the United States. The murder of a former enemy with whom there has been no war for a long time and who is not hiding, moreover, an enemy who once sought American friendship, but whose country was sentenced to death by the United States, with the help of a weapon that was created specifically for the secret murders of people unable to defend themselves. The symbol of American culture as it is. Yes, some of the people cut by the Ninja's blades are actually terrorists.

Even those who were once trained and trained by the Americans themselves.

But Suleimani was not on that list.

Why did Trump do it?

This article is being written on Saturday, January 4th. And on Sunday, January 5, the Iraqi parliament must decide whether the American troops should stay in the country after this or not. Let us venture to suggest the following.

Trump has promised to withdraw troops from both Iraq and Syria. At the same time, he needs any support in the ongoing impeachment process. This impeachment, of course, is doomed, but the pressure that the neocons are exerting on Trump is truly terrible.

Trump has already tried to get out of Syria, but his impulse was successfully sabotaged. And he cannot overcome the resistance of the neocons.

But what if the further presence of troops there becomes technically impossible? Then the neocons will have to put up with it. There will be no choice. And Trump will be the man who fulfilled his promise to leave Iraq and Syria. But how to do that? How to make it impossible to find troops in Iraq and Syria? No neocons can handle this.

Under such conditions, doing something for which the Iraqis themselves will push the US out of their country is quite a decision. This means that you will have to leave Syria, because you can supply the group there only through Iraq.

So it turns out that Trump could well have "substituted". Kill the old enemy and, at the cost of his life, solve your internal political problems. Why not?

It is possible that the reason for the murder of Suleimani is precisely this. He was an iconic figure, and the Iranians simply will not be able to close their eyes to his death - the wrong scale. It is possible that the expulsion of the Americans from Iraq as a "response" is what the American president is actually trying to achieve.

There are already leaks in the region's media that Pompeo is suggesting that the Iranians respond proportionately and calm down on this, that the United States is "breaking through" the future Iranian reaction and, in general, is not interested in the war. Then what did they want?

Lessons and Challenges for Russia

The way the United States treated Iran and its general is an example that confirms the rule of life on this planet that has already been voiced many times: no peaceful coexistence with the United States is possible. In principle, not at all. No concessions, no help, no assistance will force the Americans to abandon their plans to destroy the countries they have "sentenced." You cannot come to an agreement with them, you cannot come to an understanding. It's impossible.

Suleimani tried and his country tried. The bottom line is clear. The USSR tried, and it also does not exist. Saddam Hussein was a welcome guest in the United States in the 80s - the Americans even supplied him with chemical weapons. His country was destroyed, his children were killed, and then he himself too. Gaddafi made a lot of efforts to normalize relations with the United States, and everyone knows what he ended up with, and in Libya today there are slave markets in place of schools and hospitals. Assad tried to improve relations with the United States, handed them terrorists, shared information and began negotiations with Israel on the Golan. The result is known. Russia supported the United States after September 11th. Today, the number of ethnic Russians killed in Ukraine is in the thousands, and they were killed with the support of the United States. There are a lot of examples.

Once again, no peaceful coexistence with the United States is possible, trying to achieve that is a waste of time

This is the lesson that we see AGAIN in the biography of Qasem Suleimani. As seen in other examples before.

It is more difficult to draw conclusions for the future. If US motives are really what they seem, then Trump can really get out of the Middle East quagmire. And then his hands will be untied. Today, the fix idea for the Americans is the desire to "besiege" China. But China has a weak, according to the United States, back-up country - Russia. If you knock it out, then China's position in the confrontation with the United States will greatly weaken.

And it doesn't matter how correct this line of thought is: both Napoleon and Hitler thought the same way, but this did not prevent the second of them from repeating the mistake of the first. Americans think in a similar way.

This means that Trump's untied hands can come out sideways to us - and strongly. His words about the desire for good relations with Russia are only words, the Americans are not able to understand by them anything other than our surrender, as the USSR did in its time. At least within the political elite.

However, the idea of using the Russians as a battering ram against the Chinese and "solving the Chinese question" with someone else's hands there also excites some minds. And even finds traitor supporters in Russia itself, alas.

So our interest is to keep Trump's hands on hold. They should further be linked by Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. The US needs to be stuck there for as long as possible.

In an American-built world, many dead Americans mean few dead Russians, and vice versa. We will have to play by these rules, willy-nilly.

This means that all Russia's efforts in the context of the crisis provoked by the assassination of Soleimani by the Americans should contribute to a simple thing - they should not be allowed to leave the region quickly. They must stay there, they must spend their resources and money there …

There is one more thing. Iran, thanks to the efforts of people like Suleimani, is actively strengthening, and soon, if everything goes as it is, a new version of the Persian Empire will appear before us. Historical experience says that this is not good for Russia. Iran already has expansionist plans into the post-Soviet space, some of them jointly with China. The aggregate resources of Iran and China are incommensurably larger than ours.

It is cynical, but how much we need America's eternal war, it is not clear for what and it is not clear where, it would be just as useful for us if this very America would besiege Iran. Moreover, by playing on the side of the Iranians in such a mess, you can finally make the Americans pay for their past atrocities. Take a direct tax in blood, as, for example, in Korea. And as ideal outcomes - the bleeding wound of the United States, which will not allow them at least some time to wage their undeclared war against us, and Iran, weakened and safe for Russia, which can be made a very profitable economic partner in this case.

We did not create a world that is arranged in this way. This means that we can and must defend ourselves from both real and future threats, without feeling any special remorse about this. Because no one will feel such remorse towards us.

This is what we need to think about in connection with the death of Qasem Suleimani.