by Juan Cole reports that House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair, Eliot Engel (D-NY) has criticized the administration for its assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in response to a report fresh our of the DOD that said the attack was for past activities by Iran in attacking tankers and oil facilities in Saudi Arabia without any mention of a threat against US personnel in Iraq, the ostensible reason and the only legal reason for doing this.Cole also reminds that Soleimani had been in Baghdad to negotiate peace with Saudi Arabia at the invitation of the Iraqi prime minister. e also reminds us that the Iraqis are denying that the original attack that killed the American contractor and initiated the escalation by the US before the Soleimani attack almost certainly did not come from
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Cole also reminds that Soleimani had been in Baghdad to negotiate peace with Saudi Arabia at the invitation of the Iraqi prime minister. e also reminds us that the Iraqis are denying that the original attack that killed the American contractor and initiated the escalation by the US before the Soleimani attack almost certainly did not come from Kata'ib Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia the US claimed was respoinsible because that Shia militia has not been anywhere near the base in Kirkuk that was attacked for 18 months, with the attack almost surely having come from ISIS/ISIL/Daesh. This puts the US attack that also killed the I Iraqi general who commanded Kata'ib Hezbollah to be utterly illegal and essentially just murder and a war crime.
As it is, the Iraqi government is negotiating to get US troops out. What may happen is that US troops will leave all areas dominated by Shia, with the US insisting on keeping some troops at the air base in Sunni-dominated al-Anbar province that Iran attacked in retaliation for the Soleimani attack and that led to over 100 Americans suffering brain injuries.
This just gets worse and worse as time goes on and more information comes out, although Trump supporters will almost hear none of this and continue to be told how this was some great foreign policy triumph by Trump.
Barkley Rosser