Title: IRGC Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani: Trump's Rhetoric Is That of a Casino Source:
[None] URL Source:[None] Published:Jul 30, 2018 Author:MEMRI Post Date:2020-01-04 16:37:41 by A K A Stone Keywords:None Views:4215 Comments:18
Published on Jul 30, 2018 In response to U.S. President Trump's recent tweet to Iranian President Rouhani, IRGC Qods Force Commander General Qasem Soleimani warned "Trump the gambler" that "You may start the war, but we will be the ones to determine its end.” In a speech delivered on July 26 in the city of Hamedan, General Soleimani said that Trump's rhetoric was "that of a bartender or a casino manager" and warned him that "we are near you in places that you can't even imagine. We are a nation of martyrdom." His speech aired on Iran's Channel 5.
What kind of wack job wants to live in a country of martyrdom? What kind of wack job makes comments like that? I guess he expects every Iranian to be a terrorist.
This guy was the handpicked general that the current ayatollah has relied upon for operations across the Mideast for decades. Wherever Iran decided to make trouble, this guy was there, doling it out.
Now the ayatollah has to make do with the generals he has never really trusted before.
DEC 30 2019 PMU DEPUTY CHAIRMAN ABU MAHDI AL-MUHANDIS: WE WILL SETTLE THE SCORE WITH AMERICA; IT WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SUSTAIN CONTROL OF ITS BASES IN THE REGION
December 30, 2019Clip No. 7680 PMU Deputy Chairman Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis: We Will Settle the Score with America; It Will Not Be Able to Sustain Control of Its Bases in the Region PMU Deputy Chairman Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis said in a speech that was uploaded to the Internet on December 30, 2019 that the PMU will “settle the score” with America, that it will no longer remain silent, and that America and its intelligence agencies must not think that the U.S. can sustain control of its bases in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. Al-Muhandis warned that America and its Iraqi lackeys will be stopped. His audience chanted: “Away with the humiliation… We respond to your call, oh Hussein!” The speech was delivered on the backdrop of recent U.S. airstrikes against Iran-backed militias in Iraq.
Following are excerpts:
Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis: We will settle the score with America. By Allah, from now on, we will not be silent anymore. Imam Hussein said: “Away with the humiliation!”
Crowd: Away with the humiliation! Away with the humiliation! Away with the humiliation! Away with the humiliation! Away with the humiliation!
Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis: The U.S. Ambassador, the Americans, and their intelligence agencies must not think that they can sustain their control over their bases in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. By Allah, with these young men and with this Hussein-like determination, we will stop America and all of its Iraqi lackeys, who are hiding in their offices.
[…]
We respond to your call, oh Hussein!
Crowd: We respond to your call, oh Hussein! We respond to your call, oh Hussein!
What kind of wack job wants to live in a country of martyrdom?
You do know all muslims are brainwashed from birth? they are all wack jobs.
Iran has a number of terrorists wandering about. I think your own country has seen at least one. I don't doubt an intention to infiltrate and attack just as OBL did
Don't kid yourself. Iran has terrorist cells in every major country. It's a question of whether they decide to use them against the West and especially the Great Satan. There's a question as to whether they would be effective. They may have lost their loyalty to Iran due to years spent in the West. Or our intel services may think they have them mostly identified and they can swoop down on the whole lot of them at once given even one terrorist attack that can be blamed on Iran.
You'll notice that Iran is very cautious. For any other opponent, they would have already retaliated.
It doesn't hurt that Trump took out the guy who would have been key to any set of reprisals. You can tell the Pentagon thought we should have offed that asshole Solemani decades ago so they're happy to rub him out in a demonstrative way. They could be right too.
escalating the situation is a calculated strategy, Trump had to respond to the attack on the embassy, you couldn't have a repeat of what happened in Tehran, but it may mean they will have to withdraw from Iraq
Fine, let Iraq choose. A client state of America with some choices left or a full-fledged puppet state of Iran.
For the last few years, Solemani has been the warlord of Iraq. So the Iraqis know what they are choosing between. Iran or America. The rule of Solemani's successor or a relationship with America that has a lot fewer strings on Iraq.
I don't think Iraq wants to be an Iranian client state. They could have had that all along and didn't want it. They didn't like us but liked Iran running things with ISIS gobbling up the outer regions of Iraq even less.
For all our shortcomings, I don't think that's a hard choice to make. They'll choose us. But we might get lucky and they will choose to live under Iran's control. In which case, Trump will just pull out anyway and that might be the best solution available to us, given how sour things are on the ground.
Either way, it's time to clarify our situation in Iraq or just get out completely.
Why? read the news, they have chosen for the US to leave, tells you something. They consider that being free of drone strikes is desirable, just as the Pakistani's do. The heavy handed US foriegn policy has begun to backfire, too many years of proxy war. ISIS was undesirable and now dealt with, but Iraq will remember that it was Iran that did the heavy lifting. US policiy ahs forced them into the hands of Iran, which is always looking to restore the old persian empire. Will Trump now sanction Iraq?
Why? read the news, they have chosen for the US to leave, tells you something. They consider that being free of drone strikes is desirable, just as the Pakistani's do. The heavy handed US foriegn policy has begun to backfire, too many years of proxy war. ISIS was undesirable and now dealt with, but Iraq will remember that it was Iran that did the heavy lifting. US policiy ahs forced them into the hands of Iran, which is always looking to restore the old persian empire. Will Trump now sanction Iraq?
Iraq is a long way from evicting our remaining troops.
It's either America or Iran's way. Americans will at least leave if told to, the Iranians, not so easily. The Iranians like to attempt colonizing and converting Sunni Muslims and others to Shi'ite Islam. They attempted this in Syria, so far without any real success.
No Iraq has voted for all allied forces to leave, personally, I'm glad our troops are coming home
They aren't coming home. It isn't even clear where they will redeploy in Iraq or Kuwait. (Kuwait is within the theater of current operations for our military, same as Iraq.) Some will be shifted from the giant embassy in Baghdad at some point but most who are repositioned will be sent to the big airbase in the desert outside Baghdad or they will be nearby on a base in Kuwait.
Iraq's parliament made a phony resolution, not a law, asking us to leave. But that only withdrew them from the anti-ISIS coalition and it did not cancel the agreement that made our presence in the country that of an invited allied military force.
Even the Shi'ites in Iraq aren't that eager to let Iran run the country. Keeping us in keeps money flowing from both Iran and America and it gives Iraq's leaders (Shi'ite and Kurd and Sunni) a lot more leverage to play the two powers off against each other while keeping their own ability to change their minds later and keep getting goodies from both sides.
Iraqi pols are even more unprincipled than our own. Besides, Iraq's current government is only a caretaker government, not a fully lawful and elected government. Iraq will have to hold an election and elect a real PM with a lawful cabinet before they can actually demand that we leave the country. It isn't clear that they even have the power to withdraw from the anti-ISIS coalition unless they get a new lawfully-elected government.
They are under a caretaker government and PM now because the current PM was revealed to be a tool for an Iranian takeover and the country was revolting at the prospect. That is why Iraq has no legit lawful government at this time.
