Only the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Islamic State rejoiced in the illegal and immoral targeted killing of Iranian general, Qassem Suleimani. No compelling evidence for his extrajudicial murder has been forthcoming.
Americans knew little about Suleimani. They continue to be denied accuracy, depth and context about a man whose death has taken the United States and Iran to the brink of war.
Politicians, corporate media parrots and instant Iran experts have portrayed Suleimani in mainly negatives – a bad actor, murderous monster with blood on his hands. For Iranians, however, Suleimani was the people’s soldier, a revered and significant military leader. The son of peasants from the mountains of Kerman, he put his eight year old body to work to help support his family. Suleimani, in his teens, volunteered to serve his country after Saddam Hussein invaded Iran in 1980. He was wounded and nearly suffocated by chemical weapons that President Reagan provided Iraq during that eight year long brutal war.