January 3, 2020

"In 2007, I watched a string of vehicles pass from Iran into northern Iraq... the choice was particularly tricky: whether or not to attack a convoy that included Qassem Suleimani...."

"There was good reason to eliminate Suleimani..... But to avoid a firefight, and the contentious politics that would follow, I decided that we should monitor the caravan, not strike immediately.... Suleimani has grown from a military commander into a ghostly puppet master. His brilliance, effectiveness, and commitment to his country have been revered by his allies and denounced by his critics in equal measure. What all seem to agree on, however, is that the humble leader’s steady hand has helped guide Iranian foreign policy for decades—and there is no denying his successes on the battlefield. Suleimani is arguably the most powerful and unconstrained actor in the Middle East today. U.S. defense officials have reported that Suleimani is running the Syrian civil war (via Iran’s local proxies) all on his own.... His staunch defense of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has effectively halted any progress by the Islamic State and other rebel groups, all but ensuring that Assad remains in power and stays solidly allied to Iran.....  Suleimani is singularly dangerous. He is also singularly positioned to shape the future of the Middle East."

From "Iran’s Deadly Puppet Master/Gen. Stanley McChrystal explains exactly why Qassem Suleimani is so dangerous" in the Winter 2019 issue of Foreign Policy magazine.

47 comments:

Chuck said...

So I guess that Suleimani had grown from a military commander into a ghostly puppet master.

And he did it twice!

mccullough said...

McChrystal blew his chance in 2007. Another legacy admit to West Point. Obama was right to fire him.

Lucid-Ideas said...

You want to know why Bin Laden stayed hidden for so long? Because he was quite literally out-of-the-loop. You can stay very very safe if you give up your abilities to influence events and make decisions in real or near-to-real time.

If you decide to take chances and be active and make decisions, we'll find you. I have no doubt Qassem was being well-tracked for years and we had very good intelligence at all times on his whereabouts. Then one day, all of the sudden, God drops a piano on head.

Sebastian said...

"He is also singularly positioned to shape the future of the Middle East."

As Trump has reminded the world, any leader outside of Russia and China is positioned to do anything only at our sufferance.

As Trump has also reminded the world, it is better to be our friend than our enemy. We prefer friends, or at least partners who can fake it pretty consistently.

Dave Begley said...

Humble leader?

How the hell does he know? Why does that matter?

You should have "assassinated" him when you had a chance, loser.

Nichevo said...

mccullough said...
McChrystal blew his chance in 2007. Another legacy admit to West Point. Obama was right to fire him.



Michael Yon on Stanley McChrystal: warrior monk, a superlative killer, but not too bright.

gspencer said...

Trump's a decisive leader. The Bushes (41,43), Clintons, Obama are not, being part of the NWO cabal spearheaded by the CFR.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Times/Iran?

https://twitter.com/HeshmatAlavi/status/1021491283167268864

...and what of that curious, alleged 'foretelling' of the bombing?

Nichevo said...

Chuck said...
So I guess that Suleimani had grown from a military commander into a ghostly puppet master.

And he did it twice!


I have not yet understood how you feel this reflects poorly on the President.

traditionalguy said...

The Patriots won the Revolutionary War because the armed Americans from East Tennessee launched an overmountain hit at Kings Mountain. They killed the British terrorist forces that had been slaughtering South Carolinian civilians as a fear tactic and warning the Scots Irish in East Tennessee that they were next.

From that day,the British Army retreated to Yorktown to escape but "they got caught."

Chuck said...

Nichevo my comment had nothing to do with Trump. Althouse had included the line twice in her blog post. She's since corrected it.

Amadeus 48 said...

So we have it straight from the horse’s mouthpiece. Nice.

mccullough said...

“Ghostly puppet master.”

Who writes this crap?

mccullough said...

The puppet master metaphor is dead. People who write in cliches think in cliches.

Narr said...

Generals (the more stars, the more political they are) write this crap, mccullough.

Narr
Pay attention :-)

Amexpat said...

I'm not a Trump supporter, but this strikes me as a reasonable response to what Iran is doing. Much better to retaliate against the person in charge of killing your citizens and your allies than retaliating against low level Iranians who are probably just following orders.

The Dem candidates knee-jerk reaction reflects poorly on them. Obama had many partisan detractors who attacked him unfairly on a number of fronts, but I can't recall any criticizing him from taking out Osama Bin Laden. The Dems should learn from that.

robother said...

Make that a REVERED ghostly puppet master, General. Soon to be transformed into an austere religious scholar, if not the Muslim Mahatma. Trump's powers even extend to elevating his enemies to sainthood.

AllenS said...

The Dems should learn from that.

Fat chance.

gilbar said...

woulda coulda shoulda

The list of people we had in the crosshairs and let walk by is Long.... TOO LONG
Remember Why Colin Powell had us stop the Gulf war?

He told HW that if we went any longer...
Saddam would fall, which would mean that...
Iraq would fall, which would mean that...
We'd be fighting Iranian terrorists for THIRTY MORE YEARS

It's like that country song; where the guy says he wanted to kill his wife...
and he realizes, that if he had: HE'D BE GETTING OUT NOW

dbp said...

Just think of all the bloodshed which would have been spared had McChyrstal demolished that convoy?

gilbar said...

Narr said...
Generals (the more stars, the more political they are)


My old roommate used to say coup's are done by the Colonels; the Generals are pansies

Bob Boyd said...

"In 2007, I watched a string of vehicles pass from Iran into northern Iraq... But to avoid...the contentious politics that would follow, I decided that we should monitor the caravan, not strike immediately...."

The war in Iraq in a nutshell.

Ray - SoCal said...


Actually Bin Laden seemed to be getting constant updates, and exercised a lot of control. Unfortunately, a lot of the data from the raid is still classified, probably for CYA reasons...
> Because he was quite literally out-of-the-loop.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

Much better to retaliate against the person in charge of killing your citizens and your allies than retaliating against low level Iranians

Maybe this is the first step. Just think how many bad guys and leaders will be at this guy's funeral.

Or if that is too bloody how about wiping out a few convoys of Hezbollah and Iraqi militia leaders on their way to and from the funeral.

Ray - SoCal said...

Trump just destroyed another Overton Window.

Interesting how the belief was we should not target directly an Iranian, that is ordering lethal attacks on the US.

Rosalyn C. said...

@dbp "Just think of all the bloodshed which would have been spared had McChyrstal demolished that convoy?"

And equally important, consider all the bloodshed which Suliemani had in the plans to inflict in Iraq and the rest of the region. And the remarkably unhumble McChrystal feels nothing, not any remorse, for his feckless decision. Was it even his decision to make or his role to make policy? Why hasn't he ever run for public office?

Funny how politicians get no respect but have the ultimate power and generals get absolute respect and power but only over their subordinates. Also funny how politicians never feel the need to admire the talents and achievements of their opponents but generals need to wax poetic about their mortal enemies. Is it some form of professional virtue signaling? Are all militaries like this or just the US generals? I'm thinking also of H.R. McMaster who has expressed great respect for the "Religion of Peace."

Yancey Ward said...

What has always bothered me about warfare was that targeted assassinations are usually ruled out rather than ruled in. The US and Iran have been engaged in a proxy war in Syria, northern Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, and southern Lebanon for anywhere from 5 to 20 years. Stanley McChrysal admits that he had the opportunity in 2007, 13 years ago, to take out this particular leader of this proxy war. Sure, had McChrystal acted, Suleimani would have been replaced by someone, but then you take out that someone, too, if he doesn't change behavior.

Now, I can anticipate the counter-argument- that this hasn't worked for terrorist organizations, but this guy was backed by a government- he was an official Iranian general acting in his official duties as such, and killing Americans in this proxy war. He should have been a target 13 years ago, and anyone replacing him who continues to act the same way should also be targeted directly. It is particularly cowardly to target the tools and infantry of such men, but not target the leaders themselves because of some sort of "rule of war".

I would never have gotten the US this deeply involved in the region in the first place. My first reaction to the attempted sacking of the embassy would have been to understand that the Iraqi government was no longer interested in protecting such things (they literally let the militias through the gates into the Green Zone), and simply to pull up stakes and leave- there is no point in having an embassy when the host goverment won't act to protect it. However, involved we are. If you are going to fight these sorts of wars, targeting the Suleimanis of the world is one of the more correct ways to proceed. I would make it crystal clear to his replacements that they are on a list, too, including the Mullahs.

Darrell said...

Did the Democrats or their Deep State handpuppets in intelligence communicate with the Iranians before the embassy incursion?

That is the question that must be answered.

Darrell said...

Didn't Ted Kennedy contact Nikolai Tikhonov and tell him that Democrats would do everything in their power to stop Reagan?

Didn't Democrats help organize two caravans of illegal immigrants for XCentral and South America to invade the US to cause Trump trouble?

Weren't the Democrats and their media tampons trying to stir up tensions with North Korea and China?

Rosalyn C. said...

Just the other day I was reading that Rouhani was saying Iran has lost $200 billion, (making them even for the ridiculous deal they got out of Obama?)

From en.radiofarda:
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has said that ran has lost $200 billion during the past two years as a result of U.S. sanctions.

However, he said he was running the country's economy without that $200 billion.

Speaking while launching a railway project in Golshahr near Tehran on Tuesday December 31, Rouhani said: "Iran would have earned $200 billion surplus income since 2016 if the country was not involved in an economic war."

The United States imposed crippling economic sanctions on Iran in 2018 and 2019, after it decided to withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as JCPOA, asking for a stronger agreement and a change in Iran's behavior in the region.

Iran has lost 90 percent of its oil exports; a cash lifeline for the government and the economy. Its currency has fallen fourfold in the past two years and annual inflation has surpassed 40 percent.

Rouhani questioned the argument of hardliner who say the sanctions have not affected Iran and criticized them for calling for the strengthening of "sanction management", as a way out of the dire situation, without making any political concessions to the United States.

"What should we do? When there is no food and water, you are still in danger no matter how strong you are," he said.

Elsewhere in his speech Rouhani spoke about Iran's joint naval exercise with China and Russia in the Sea of Oman last week and said: "The plundering world is angry about this exercise in the same way they become angry when they see millions of Iranians take to the streets to support the political system."

Rouhani made the comment a few weeks after millions of Iranians protested against economic hardships, inequality, financial corruption and discrimination following a gas price hike in November.

William said...

They say that Artificial Intelligence works better than the human variety. It's not just emotions and morality that AI does not compute but also logic. Events just happen, and there is no logic to them.....I support the killing of this man. Killing your enemy is a time honored way of achieving victory. Still, for all I know, this might turn to be an Archduke Ferdinand moment. Who knows? I predict the future will happen and that it will not be as predicted.

Skeptical Voter said...

Well the Iranian General was "uniquely shaped" to influence events. But now his shape is in a lot of pieces--Humpty Dumpty done fell off (or was blown off) the wall. It'll be hard to put him back together.

But there will be another--there always is. But maybe not so effective this time.

Lincolntf said...

Senator Josh Hawley is going to file a motion to dismiss the Impeachment because it hasn't been brought to trial, per Trump's Twitter 17 minutes ago. Should be fun.

Maddad said...

The "humble leader" is dead because he stopped being humble.

Maddad said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
William said...

I understand that Hitler was such a clueless military leader that the allies went out of their way not to kill him. Such consideration did not apply Admiral Yamamoto. He was a commander of genuine skills and talent, so it was all good when the Americans offed him.... I don't get the impression that Iran produces an unlimited number of military geniuses. By their own estimation, he was their best. My gut reaction is that this is a good thing, but who knows what crap a dumber Soleimani will dump on the world.

hombre said...

“Tricky” choice, eh? In the Obama era “tricky” meant “sacrifice a military advantage to avoid a fight that might be ‘politically contentious’.”

That is, sacrifice the lives of American soldiers in the future to avoid political embarrassment to Obama. That is sick stuff! It is incredible that McCrystal would acknowledge having made such a decision.

Trump needs to weed the Obots out of the high command as well as the DOJ/FBI.

Rabel said...

"That is, sacrifice the lives of American soldiers in the future to avoid political embarrassment to Obama. That is sick stuff! It is incredible that McCrystal would acknowledge having made such a decision."

"In 2007..."

Bob Boyd said...

Forget it, Rabel. He's rolling.

bagoh20 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
bagoh20 said...

I can't see the negatives. He was their best asset for attacking us and our interests. Even if it leads to reprisal, they won't have their best guy planning and commanding it. The idea that Iran would leave us alone if we hadn't done this is so stupid and counterfactual it hurts my soul to hear Americans say it, but you know that some people just have to spew this totally predictable and bullshit criticism. Bin Laden was spared by Clinton, and we have been doing the same weak ass shit ever since. How many Americans have been killed becuase our weak-kneed and very careful leaders passed on opportunities to eliminate future mass killers when they had the chance. I'll tell you how many - thousands. Thousands of our people killed becuase of cowardice and "carefulness". Cowardice and carefulness that butchers like Bin Laden and Suleimani counted on for protection. They purposefully suggest that they are just too dangerous to kill, and our foolish leaders fall for it over and over. "Death to America!" Finally we may have a leader that scares them into inaction for a change.

Lincolntf said...

Very well said, bagoh20. I might have to post that, or a paraphrase, on social media. With accreditation of course.

Fernandinande said...

I applied for a job as a deadly puppet master but someone else got it.

gg6 said...

"good reason to eliminate Suleimani.....But to avoid a firefight, and.. contentious politics... I decided we should monitor... not strike."
HA! I decided?! What a narcissist loser McCrystal is! Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Bob Boyd said...

I applied for a job as a deadly puppet master but someone else got it.

Well polish your resume. A vacancy just opened up.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

per our comment earlier

NYT Floated Soleimani Assassination Scenario in Baghdad Hours Before Strike
per zerohedge

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