Thursday evening, Jan 2, 2020, the US government, using a Predator drone, launched a missile that struck and killed Iranian Major General Sardar Qasem Soleimani at Baghdad’s international airport.
Much will be said in the coming weeks on the wisdom of striking the leader of the Iranian Military. He also headed the Iranian elite Quds force which is arm of the Iranian Guard Corps.
Two key events, a large timeline of history, and opportunity seem to be what triggered the U.S. drone attack. The two events, described below, are the killing of Nawres Hamid in a Hezbollah attack and the protests at the US Embassy.
In 2007 the United National Security Council, banned Soleimani from international travel. In 2015, this travel ban was re-affirmed with Security Council Resolution 2231. Soleimani was in violation of this resolution as he was outside Iran.
Iran has been in the news for years. Tanker wars, Drone shoot downs, Iranian funding of it’s Proxy groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, Syrian National Defense Force, Houthi’s in Yemen, the list is long. All funded by Iran, a country with more international sanctions to dampen their economy, but somehow, they find the money to dole out to proxy groups.
Iran passenger flights during time of stress or war? One would hope their version of the FAA would ground passenger flights while launching ballistic missiles. And now we have two incidents, Jan 7, 2020, and back in 1988, where Iranian passenger flights have been shot down, because of the fog of war. Why would you let a passenger plane take off with such a heightened sense of security?
At some point something has to be done about Iran. Giving them more money, as the Obama administration did, just let’s them up their game to another level.