Inevitably, the killing of Qassem Soleimani begets a comparison to the killing of Osama bin Laden. Both men were deadly enemies of the United States. Both were responsible for deadly attacks on Americans. Both were killed in foreign lands without the approval of the local authorities — bin Laden in Pakistan and Soleimani in Iraq.
But that’s where the similarities end.
Killing bin Laden was largely symbolic. Much of Al Qaeda, the stateless terrorist group which bin Laden led, had been dismantled by the time of his killing. Most of its leaders had been arrested or killed. Bin Laden ended up living on the upper level of a house in Abbottabad, Pakistan, stepping outside only to take walks in the garden enclosed by the property’s surrounding walls. He had become an isolated figure, largely cut off. He was no longer the driving force behind al Qaeda.
To take out bin Laden, the Obama administration depended largely on satellite imagery and some nebulous intelligence on the ground. Obama himself had said that the chances were only 50-50 that Osama bin Laden was actually there.
US forces had to make an incursion into Pakistan. This created some risk for members of the SEAL team, who, if they were discovered by Pakistani defenses, might have had to fight their way out of the country. That could have been a difficult and embarrassing moment for the Obama administration.
Did the killing of bin Laden make America safer? Perhaps marginally. It did demonstrate America’s resolve to bring down anyone who harms large numbers of Americans regardless of how much time elapses.
Killing Soleimani was much more than symbolic. Qassem Soleimani was the commander of the Quds Force. Soleimani directed the movements and activities of many Iranian proxy terrorist groups throughout the countries near Iran. He was the principal policy advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. Soleimani had active terror operations going on in multiple countries. Reports are leaking out that he had multiple terror operations planned when he was killed. Taking out Soleimani decapitated Iran’s quest for dominance in the Middle East. And, as we shall see, it was even more than that.
Gershon Hacohen, a senior research fellow at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, notes,
In addition, the surgical strike that took out Soleimani demonstrated that the US had very good intelligence on the ground. They knew when Soleimani was in Damascus. They knew when he left Damascus. They knew what plane he was on. They knew which airport the plane landed at. They knew when the plane landed. They knew which vehicles Soleimani and his terrorist allies were in and exactly what time those vehicles were heading out of the airport. This has to concern the Iranians and those working with them.
Hillel Frisch of the Began-Sadat Center notes,
Did the taking out of Soleimani make America and the world safer? Democrats are trying to convince the world that that is not true. According to them PDJT made America less safe. World War III is on the horizon according to them. Of course, only time will tell. However, if the reports coming out of Iraq are any indication, the answer is just the opposite.
Sara Carter reports,
U.S. officials have intercepted chatter and received confirmation that terrorist leaders in Iraq have been fleeing the region and have gone into hiding fearing United States intelligence capabilities after the successful airstrike that killed Iranian Quds Force leader Qassem Soleimani,according to multiple sources that spoke to SaraACarter.com.
It appears that these terrorists do not want to become grease spots on the desert floor. They know that Soleimani’s demise was a warning to them. They’re getting the hell out of Dodge as fast as they can. As one former senior military official, who now works in the region, told SaraACarter.com.
“President Trump’s decision to put American contractors and military personnel first was a reversal from the Obama administration’s position and is going to save more American lives than people realize.”
Another area where there are differences has to do with the Obama administration love affair with being the savior of the world. According to BHO, during his administration, terrorism was on the run. The ending of bin Laden in May 2011, was one of the last acts needed to prove this. While rogue, lone-wolf actors might still be a problem, organized terrorism was at an end.
This is why Benghazi was such a big problem in September 2012. It had the potential to expose the lie that the Obama administration was peddling. This is why requests for additional security for the Benghazi mission were turned down. After the mission was overrun, this led to Susan Rice going on the Sunday morning talk show circuit to obfuscate the events in Benghazi. Rice needed to create the false narrative that Benghazi was a spontaneous outburst due to some video. The 2012 presidential election was less than two months away. They could not afford to have the public discern the truth. Benghazi was not due to a spontaneous outburst. This was organized terrorism that had been telegraphed in advance.
PDJT and his administration are under no such illusions. They are peddling no such lies to the American public. President Trump and his team are basing America’s foreign policy on reality not some fantasies concocted to “protect” Americans from the truth. PDJT is not afraid to say that evil exists in the world and that some evil is state-sponsored. What PDJT is telling world governments (Iran in particular) is that, if you harm American citizens, America will respond. This President has red lines that one crosses only at risk of significant blowback from America.
PDJT has destroyed the narrative, first advanced by the Carter administration, that the killing of Americans by Iran in moderate doses is acceptable. As Caroline Glick noted about the Carter administration,
Glick went on to note that Trump’s decision to kill Soleimani along with Muhandis destroyed the Carter administration’s Iran legacy.
All of this makes the Democrats and their allies in the fake news networks look utterly idiotic as they rant about PDJT being unhinged, inflammatory, unable to see the big picture, etc. As usual, the Democrats are just projecting their own faults on the President. Glick opined further,
One can only hope that PDJT keeps winning and more and more of the delusions of the Democrats and their media allies who hate America are exposed. For certain, we can expect the attacks on Trump to increase in intensity and irrationality as time goes by and as his successes mount. I am certain that the Democrats will trot out some mental health “experts” in the near future to opine that the President needs to be replaced under the 25th amendment.
The only ones who are delusional here are the Democrats who believe that killing Americans in small doses is acceptable.
