What is going on with the United States, Iran, and Iraq? How did we get here?

Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, head of the Quds Force was killed by a US drone at the Baghdad airport on January 3, 2020.

The Quds Force is kind of more like the CIA. It was created, in part, with the mandate of liberating Muslim lands, especially Jerusalem (called al-Quds in Arabic. It’s a cognate with the word “kadosh” in Hebrew).

Why?

Qasem Soleimani has been in control of Iran’s Quds Force for more than 20 years. His current greatest hits include helping Bashar al Assad slaughter hundreds of thousands of his own people in the Syrian civil war, stoking the Houthis in Yemen’s civil war, and overseeing the killing of hundreds of Iraqi protesters recently demonstrating against Iranian influence in their country. But most importantly for Americans, Soleimani was behind the deaths of hundreds of American soldiers during the Iraq War. Last year, the U.S. State Department put the number of Americans killed by Iranian proxies in Iraq at 608 since 2003...The killing of hundreds of our troops in Iraq, the constant terrorism it sponsors and supplies against Israel, and even the recent provocations against oil traffic in the Persian Gulf are all acts of war from which there really is no retreat without severe consequences (Novak).

Beginning with why was an Iranian Major General, an avid enemy of the United States, hanging out at the Baghdad airport, a country that continues to have a pretty decent sized US military presence (approximated at 6000).







Let’s start with Sykes Picot 1916:



When the British/French/Imperial Russians drew the map of the Middle East during WWI, they didn’t take into account that, specifically in Iraq, there were Shias, Sunnis, and Kurds who may or may not want to be in one state together.

The British propped up a Sunni (Hashemite) King named Feisal I, despite protests by other groups (Shia, Yazidi, Assyrian Christians).

What was the point of having a group with fewer people (Sunni) rule over Iraq rather than Shia (majority)? This gave the Sunni more reason to keep power. They knew if the Shia ever took power, they, as a minority, would have none.

There were many wars, civil wars, coups, etc during the time period after WWI during the British Mandate, then when Iraq became a state (1932), to when it became a Republic (1958) to its time ruled by the Baathists (1963-2002). The Baathists were loyal to the Soviet Union.

Which brings us back to Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani.

In 1979, Iran had a revolution to overthrow their monarch Shah Mohamed Reza Pahlavi. Although it wasn’t the intention of all (most?) of the revolutionaries to live under a theocracy, the people who gained control were the Ayatollahs. The Iranians were against the United States because of their support for the Shah and a 1953 CIA sponsored/supported coup against the sitting prime minister of Iran. This hatred culminated in the storming of the US Embassy, where 52 US diplomats were held hostage for 444 days. This is where and when Suleimani got his start.

From 1980 to 1990, Iran and Iraq fought a war that resulted in the deaths of a million people! Suleimani was very involved and considered heroic during this war. Towards the middle of the war, Iraq (which was more loyal to the Soviet Union) was provided arms by the US government.

However, that relationship changed in August 1990, when Saddam Hussein, the leader of Iraq, invaded Kuwait. In the first post-Cold War showdown, in January 1991, the United States, led by George HW Bush, joined or supported by most other Western countries, bombed Iraq forcing Saddam Hussein to withdraw from Kuwait.

Over the next 13 years, the US would accuse Iraq of trying to build or having weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). Two years after the attacks of 9-11, US President George W. Bush convinced Congress that Iraq was an imminent threat leading to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. No WMDs were found, but Saddam Hussein was hanged by Shiite leaders. Since 2003, Iraq has tried to build a democracy, but sectarian tensions have made it difficult as Shiite leaders are in control and former Baath party members (pretty much all adult male Sunnis prior to 2003) were banned from being in government. Given the size of the bureaucracy under Saddam Hussein, this put a lot of people out of work opening an opportunity for militant groups, like ISIS to recruit. When ISIS took Mosul, Iran (and the US) were the ones who "freed it."

Fast forward eight years later, as the Iraqi democracy is struggling, the Arab world revolts against its dictatorships. The short lived Arab spring has had long lasting implications in Syria, kicking off a brutal, ongoing civil war. The Syrian dictator, Bashara al Assad is supported by Iran (re: Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani) and Russia in his fight against Sunni rebels, ISIS, and the Kurds. (The US was fighting ISIS by air, while the Iranians were fighting them on the ground, according to the New York Times). His fingers are also in the Yemen Civil War as well as training Hezbollah fighters against Israel. All in an effort to make Iran the supreme Middle East country over Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

Which brings us to why Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani was at the Baghdad airport on the last day of his life. Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani was also responsible for training Shiite militia who were thwarting democracy in their own country. While the US has a troop presence there, it has essentially left Iraq, meanwhile Iran is there to pick up the pieces. Iran is being held responsible by the US for the murder of a US contractor on December 28 on an Iraqi military base. The US responded by attacking Iranian backed targets in Iraq and Syria. This angered Iraqis, as they said the US was violating their sovereignty. However, the US did not back down, and when Suleimani was at the airport in Baghdad, on his way back from a trip to Syria, he was with with two Popular Mobilization Committee  (Shiite militia) senior officials. The US military provided intelligence to President Trump who ordered the strike which killed all three.  President Trump's predecessors had never ordered a strike on Suleimani so as to not provoke a war with Iran.

You may be wondering how is this legal. Assassinations are not legal, but according to the President and other experts this killing is not an assassination. It is justified force in a military conflict. Other experts say that it does not meet the standard as the US is not at war with Iran.

Iran has vowed revenge and President Trump has vowed to crush Iran if there is any retaliation. The Iraqi parliament has voted to expel US troops. News has broken today that alleges that the Pentagon didn’t actually want President Trump to choose the kill option. Also, Iran has completely backed out of the nuclear treaty it signed under the Obama administration, and in the fallout from this strike the US has already ordered thousands more troops to the Middle East and halt its counter-ISIS efforts.

So, what’s next?

Works Cited

Abdo, Geneive. “Egypt: The Religious Root of Conflicts in the Middle East.” Pulitzer Center, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, 8 May 2017, pulitzercenter.org/reporting/egypt-religious-root-conflicts-middle-east.

Abdul-Zahra, Qassim. “Syria and Iraq Airstrikes Target Group Blamed for American's Death.” Time, TIME USA, 30 Dec. 2019, time.com/5756651/us-airstrikes-iraq-syria-contractor/.

Anderson, Scott. “Fractured Lands: How the Arab World Came Apart.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 11 Aug. 2016, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/08/11/magazine/isis-middle-east-arab-spring-fractured-lands.html.

Arango, Tim, et al. “Qassim Suleimani, Master of Iran's Intrigue, Built a Shiite Axis of Power in Mideast.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 3 Jan. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/01/03/obituaries/qassem-soleimani-dead.html.

Berger, Miriam. “Where U.S. Troops Are in the Middle East and Afghanistan, Visualized.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 4 Jan. 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/world/where-us-troops-are-in-the-middle-east-and-could-now-be-a-target-visualized/2020/01/04/1a6233ee-2f3c-11ea-9b60-817cc18cf173_story.html?arc404=true.

Cooper, Helene, et al. “As Tensions With Iran Escalated, Trump Opted for Most Extreme Measure.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 Jan. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/01/04/us/politics/trump-suleimani.html?action=click&module=Top%2BStories&pgtype=Homepage.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Sykes-Picot Agreement.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 13 Nov. 2018, www.britannica.com/event/Sykes-Picot-Agreement.

Hubbard, Ben, et al. “Iran Pulls Back From Nuclear Deal as Killing of Iranian General Upends Mideast.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 Jan. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/01/05/world/middleeast/iran-general-soleimani-iraq.html?action=click&module=Top%2BStories&pgtype=Homepage.

Kennedy, Merrit, and Jackie Northam. “Was It Legal For The U.S. To Kill A Top Iranian Military Leader?” NPR, NPR, 4 Jan. 2020, www.npr.org/2020/01/04/793412105/was-it-legal-for-the-u-s-to-kill-a-top-iranian-military-leader.

Novak, Jake. “Op-Ed: America Just Took out a Man Many Consider the World's No. 1 Bad Guy.” CNBC, NBC Universal, 3 Jan. 2020, www.cnbc.com/2020/01/02/trump-just-took-out-the-worlds-biggest-bad-guy-qassim-soleimani.html.

“The Sunni-Shia Divide.” Council on Foreign Relations, Council on Foreign Relations, 16 Feb. 2016, www.cfr.org/interactives/sunni-shia-divide#!/sunni-shia-divide.

Unreciprocated Rainbow

Today on my way to work, as a car was cutting me off, I saw a stunning rainbow. The rainbow followed me to school and was a magnificent site through the window of the Humanities teacher’s office that also serves as the school’s second-floor bomb shelter.  Sitting at this desk last week, I checked my Twitter account to learn of the terror attack on a synagogue in Jerusalem that left four dead as they said their morning prayers.

Meanwhile, Arabs in Israel are also being attacked, but by right wing Jewish nationalists. Over the weekend, some set fire to a home in an Arab village where two women were sleeping, but escaped.

The bad behavior on both sides seems to never cease. Eight and nine year old Palestinians in Jerusalem are being encouraged by their parents to skip school and throw stones and incendiary devices at Israeli police and soldiers.

Then looking at news from the United States, I was overcome with the horror of the UVA rape cases reported by Rolling Stone. Not to mention, the Congress’s desire to de-science the EPA. Meanwhile, I wonder if the United States was too naive in trying to make a nuclear deal with the Iranians.

…..

I remember at Jewish camp when I was nine or ten years old, we discussed the following: who will bring Messianic peace: God or people?  There was no one answer, but the idea (it was a Reform camp) was that our actions change the world and God might chip in, too. This was a bit different from the Orthodox Jewish school, I attended that taught God judges our acts of loving kindness, but has the final say on all matters.

As I’ve gotten older, I have found myself to be less religious. Perhaps that will change again later in my life. However, because of the longevity of today’s rainbow, I have been  contemplating the Biblical food story. After Noah spends 40 days on the ark, God promises him to never destroy the world again. The rainbow is a symbol of that covenant.

But now, 20 minutes into writing this, the rainbow has disappeared. And I’m wondering if the story would have had a better ending had Noah promised God the same. Instead, he goes off to plant vineyard, presumably to forget his time on the ark.

In a parallel universe....

September 10, 2010

East Jerusalem, Palestine

Palestine celebrated its 10th anniversary of statehood today. Fireworks and red and black balloons filled the streets of every major city celebrating what some said was an impossibility.

"Everyone assumed that Palestinians and Israelis could not make peace and resolve the conflict. This 10 year celebration proves otherwise," said U.S. President Barack Obama.

In attendance at the celebration were former U.S. presidents George Bush, Bill Clinton and Al Gore, the three were instrumental in the Oslo Accords. The newly elected leaders of Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon were also in attendance.

The world has marveled over Palestine's resurgence onto the world stage. After accepting the financial and political agreements confirmed in 2000 with Israel, Palestinians used the money funded by the EU, U.S. and Israel in return for land lost during the 1948 and 1967 wars to invest in science universities where the affordable electronic car was invented as well as, in corporation with Israel and Jordan, a new technique to purify salt water to provide freshwater for the desert region.

The Jewish settlements that were so controversial in 2000, were voluntarily dismantled (settlements that were heavily populated were annexed by Israel in agreement with the Palestinians), and settlers have now built houses in the northern and southern parts of Israel - accepting the land for peace agenda. The city of Sderot has grown to 500,000 people who are also pioneers in the new alternative energies from fuels. Other booming cities are Ashdod, Ashkelon and Beer Sheva.

The elected leaders of the Palestine announced today to the cheers of thousands that the Gaza West Back underground tunnel is being expanded to six lanes due to heavy traffic to and from Ramala to Gaza City.

Today also marks the fifth anniversary of the closing of the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees. The last refugee camp in Lebanon was closed on September 1, 2005.

Israel's Prime Minister Tzipi Livni was not in attendance at the anniversary celebration, but sent 10 dozen red roses as a good will gesture. Leaders of the Jewish State could not attend the celebration because the anniversary happens to fall on the first day of Rosh Hashanah. However in honor of the New Year, Livni announced that Israelis no longer have a mandatory draft, rather a choice of national service (before limited mostly to religious young women) which can be served in Israel or abroad or regular army service. The move should save Israel almost a billion dollars per year which it will invest in public schools to reduce class size.

As for the militant group Hamas, known for suicide bombings during the mid 1990s, their members have been mostly arrested or have joined other more moderate political parties in Palestine.

Anonymous reports from a Federal Prison official were that Osama Bin Laden was watching the celebrations from in jail cell in Arlington, Virginia where he has been since 2002.

Who to blame for Gaza crisis

I am sitting in an office in Jerusalem as I write this piece about Israel’s attack on Gaza.

But I want to be clear that I have no more insight into the crisis than if I were sitting in my condo in Chicago looking at the snow. The only difference is I spend my day with Israelis, but life here, in Jerusalem, is normal and seemingly safe.

A coworker and I joked yesterday that if he gets called up to the reserves, he will be getting shot at as I phone him for directions to get from one place to another. (This is my first time driving in Israel.)

“Sharna, this is kind of bad time,” he joked holding his phone to his ear.
“But I can’t figure out how to get to this hotel in Talpiyot; it will only take a minute.”

.
Today’s news is focusing on the rising death toll in Gaza and the outrage of the Arab population against the Arab League that has not met about the attacks. Also in the Jordanian parliament a member lit an Israeli flag on fire and then stepped on it to put out the fire. (smart guy! He could have burned down the fake parliament. If a fake parliament burns, does anyone smell it?)

Perhaps I am being too glib in the wake of this humanitarian catastrophe. But how can I be anything else when this situation was predictable six months ago when the Egyptians negotiated the so called cease fire otherwise known as time to amass weapons for Hamas and time for Israel to spy from the air where Hamas is amassing the weapons? Or the cease fire where Hamas was firing rockets into towns in southern Israel as the Israelis in Southern Israel are terrified and furious with its government for not caring about them or as the song here says, “coffee at home in Tel Aviv, rockets at home in the South.”

This situation is a failure of the international community and of the Arab League, not to mention the power vacuum in Washington. Indeed, the populace of Arab states should be angry about the situation in Gaza. However, their viciousness is misguided as it is fueled by hatred of Israel, Anti Semitism and Anti Americanism. Their message gets lost in their burning effigies.

What they should be angry about is that during this cease fire the nations of the Arab League and the International Community should have been bettering the lives of the Gazans through building of schools, hospitals, industry, etc. instead of twiddling their thumbs awaiting the cease fire to break and all hell to break loose. Instead the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is some strange pawn in an International game where Israelis and many, many Palestinians end up being the big losers.

Remember, Egypt has a border with Gaza. It’s not Israel’s (sole) responsibility to help Gaza (who elected a government – Hamas - that doesn’t recognize Israel’s existence and tosses rockets into its southern cities to rebuild its infrastructure. Arab governments could have been smuggling in supplies and blockaded the Iranian weaponry.

This conflict serves Arab governments in many ways: it raises the cost of oil, it provides a bargaining chip for Arab governments in terms of its relationships with the Security Council, and perhaps mostly importantly, when Israel attacks Gaza it serves as a distraction from their own countries’ failings and demonizes the Jewish state in the eyes of the media and the international community.