This came out of a discussion the mods had last night. I wanted to throw it open to more opinions. The question in came out of was “Has the President had any military victories?” The discussion became much more interesting than that.
On January 3, 2020, General Qaysem Soleimani, Commander of the Iranian Quds force since 1998–primarily responsible for its extraterritorial military and clandestine operations–was killed by a USA drone missile strike in Baghdad.
No one debates that General Soleimani:
- Was a bad person in a bad regime. He was a malefactor and villain in the world. The nature of his position effectively made him a director of terrorist operations.
- He was a military commander, of a country that the US is not officially at war with (Iran), at the time of his killing in yet another foreign country (Iraq).
- Targetted assassinations of military commanders are generally considered a “violation” of the “rules” of war, and a casus belli.
We’ve had enough time go by, that with hindsight we see this came to nothing. But… generally targetted killing military officers is considered a cause of war by the international community. And–very fortunately–Iran’s targetted strike and a US military base in Iraq resulted in several casualties: but no fatalities, so there was no need for escalation and further retribution (And then the big news story of 2020 came along anyway). John Bolton’s war did not happen. But it could have.
So the question to consider:
Should the US/American allies abide by international norms and standards when it comes to bad players like Iran, and Qasem Soleymani? Why?
Sir Tainley