This guy was directly responsible for hundreds (maybe over 1,000) U.S. Soldiers killed in Iraq by shaped charge IEDs manufactured by Iran and its Iraqi proxies. He also orchestrated clandestine raids and kidnappings, like the one that happened in Karbala in 2007. [0]
He was also responsible for the deaths of untold numbers of civilians in Iraq and Syria at the hands of Shia death squads and Shia militias/paramilitary forces. These are people who kidnapped innocent Sunni civilians off the streets and drilled holes through their skulls to kill them. (Sorry for the graphic description there, but this was ugly war)
He was in charge of the Quds Force, which is like the American CIA and Special Forces Command combined. But, he’s far more important than his Major General (2-star) rank implies. He’s probably the second-most powerful person in Iran. Equivalent in strength to a Vice President, but much more behind the scenes. This is huge. Imagine if David Petraeus secretly ran everything that the US did externally and then some nation killed him.
More context here: https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1212913366492016640
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karbala_provincial_headquarter...
I can only hope for the best outcome being something like Iraq asking us to leave, and then largely falling into the fold of Iran. And hopefully that not being opposed by the US (unlikely) and it being all the victory Iran needs. Maybe something like that.
The alternative at a minimum is going to be many more lives lost and billions spent. At the other end of the spectrum tens of thousands of US lives, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Iranian lives, and trillions more in US dollars thrown on the fire.
Looting Iraq?
Coordinating with the local PMF forces [0] which just a bit earlier the US hit [1] in retaliation for the killed US contractor.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_Mobilization_Forces
You think the US would leave Iraq to Iran ?
Iraq is essentially a buffer for SA / Israel
Once he’s dead he’ll simply be replaced with the next general in line, and the war will continue.
My context is that this is no secret from the countries leadership, just merely not official acknowledged like CIA actions.
He didn’t act based on his nations policy he set it.
The primary mandate of the Commander of the Quds Force is to export the Iranian revolution.
He isn’t a military general in any traditional manner, he sets up and commands militias around the Middle East.
Do you think the next general in line shows up at Baghdad international too?
It is not a trend that bodes well for humanity in the future.
This was a real decaptitation strike. US killed a major mastermind, organizer, and an icon to some. It's akin to killing Al-Baghdadi or Hannibal at the peak of their successes. It will be interesting to see how that will end up working out.
Imagine a drone the size of a fly landing on a President or someone high up in a country and 'stinging' them with a poison then flying back home? Even if it was caught/destroyed it wouldn't always be traceable if using vpn's and pre-programmed flight patterns and ai.
There's been nothing like this ever. It's scary and kind of fascinating in a JAmes Bond kind of way, but still mostly scary. If the tech is ever open sourced or democratized it could be used to attack anyone you don't agree with or who's wronged you, etc... basically a super tiny hitman that isn't as stupid/error prone as a real hitman.
its basically the same thing. just an upscale in range, and really safe distance is safe distance... doesn't really change the situation when you add more 00's to the distance.
its basically the same thing. just an upscale in precision, and really safe distance is safe distance... doesn't really change the situation when you add more dangerous technology to the mix.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/July_12,_2007_Baghdad_airstri...
Amusingly, the video starts with Wikileaks decrypted the video, but all drone feeds are unencrypted.
Drone traffic is now predominantly encrypted it’s not the early 2000’s anymore when you could tune into drone feeds with a satellite dish and $30 worth of software.
