Guy Farmer: What’s next with Iran?

The Blame America First crowd was loudly outraged after President Trump ordered the drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani, a notorious international terrorist and mass murderer responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans and tens of thousands of his fellow Muslims. Good riddance!

Nevertheless, the Blame America Firsters were beside themselves when Trump gave the order to take out a bloodthirsty terrorist who devoted the last 20 years of his life to killing as many Americans and other “infidels” as possible. Some far-left Democrats wanted to add another impeachment charge against the president and Muslim-American Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, accused Trump of “assassinating a foreign official.” This is the same radical congresswoman who described the 9/11 terror attacks this way: “Some people did something.” Whose side is she on?

Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called Soleimani “a senior foreign military official” before she backtracked, and former UNR and NFL quarterback and self-described “social justice warrior” Colin “Kap” Kaepernick was predictably outraged. “There’s nothing new about American terrorist attacks against black and brown people for the expansion of American terrorism,” he said, demonstrating yet again why no NFL team is willing to hire this very rich “oppressed black person,” as Kap sees himself.

“Hey Moron, Iran is killing black and brown people,” replied conservative firebrand Mark Levin while another conservative commentator, Tomi Lahren, urged Kap to move to Iran. Good idea, Tomi.

Well, enough about anti-American Americans. In his TV address to the nation on Wednesday, Trump showed remarkable restraint after Iran retaliated to the drone strike that killed Soleimani by launching ballistic missiles against two American military bases in Iraq, resulting in minimal damage and no American deaths. Of course Iran described the missile attack as a “great victory.” Thankfully, however, we’re in a propaganda war with Iran, not a shooting war ... for now. At the same time, we need to counter Iran’s poisonous propaganda.

Trump sought to assure the nation that we’re NOT on the brink of war with Iran. “Only minimal damage was sustained (and) Iran appears to be standing down, which is a very good thing,” the president said.

Somewhat surprisingly, the Trump-hating New York Times reported that Soleimani, the ex-commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards and Quds Force, “was the architect of nearly every significant operation by Iranian intelligence and military forces over the past two decades, and his death was a staggering blow for Iran at a time of sweeping geopolitical conflict.” The U.S. Defense Department issued a statement saying that at the time of his death Soleimani “was planning attacks across the (Middle East) region, leading to an airstrike on Baghdad.”

In an incisive analysis by the nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations, terrorism expert Ray Takeyh wrote that Soleimani’s death “marks a further weakening of Iran’s regime in its struggle against the United States and its ability to project influence in the Mideast.” Takeyh went on to explain that as commander of the Quds Force, an external extension of the Revolutionary Guards, Soleimani “was particularly adept at creating militias manned by recruits from across the Middle East and South Asia ... which allowed Iran to wage proxy campaigns of violence responsible for the deaths of hundreds of U.S. troops during the civil war in Iraq.”

So I don’t think Soleimani was just another “foreign official.” To his credit, ex-President Obama authorized the attack that killed ISIS leader Osama bin Laden, but he never went after Soleimani despite many provocations. Instead, Obama drew meaningless red lines and delivered bags full of cash to Iranian terrorists. Draw your own conclusions.

Guy W. Farmer is the Appeal’s senior political columnist.