THE ATLANTIC
Qassem Soleimani Haunted the Arab World
by Kim Ghattas
January 3, 2020

…Yet in parts of the Middle East, the reaction was different. Soleimani, a man thought of as invincible and all-powerful in the region, was killed at about 1 a.m. local time, just as he was leaving Baghdad airport. By 4:30 a.m., a group of Iraqis was marching—running, even—through the country’s capital carrying a large Iraqi flag, celebrating his death. In one video, a man’s voice can be heard lauding the killing, saying the deaths of Iraqi protesters had been avenged. READ MORE

FDD LONG WAR JOURNAL Bill Roggio: Qods Force commander Soleimani’s carelessness put him in the U.S. military’s crosshairs In Iraq alone, Soleimani’s backing of Shia militias and death squads made him responsible for the deaths of more than 600 US soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians, soldiers and police. His support of Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad has enabled a perpetual war between Israel and Lebanon, and the Palestinians. Tens of thousands have died in those conflicts. In Yemen, Soleimani’s support of the Houthis has ensured the country has remained in a state of civil war. In Syria, Soleimani stood up Shiite militias, some from Iraq and Afghanistan, to battle the Islamic State and prop up the murderous Assad regime.

FRONT PAGE MAG Kenneth R. Timmerman: Bye Bye Suleymani…But the real impact, one can legitimately wager, will be quite different from what you’ve been hearing so far from most of the U.S. and international media. Rather than engendering some massive Iranian “retaliation,” as many talking heads have been warning, I believe this strike will throw the Iranian regime back on its heels, as wannabe successors contemplate their careers vaporizing in a U.S. drone strike and Iran’s civilian leaders fret that they have been exposed as emperors without clothes.