Iranian Dead Guy

[Tecumsehsbones]

This could go in a lot of different directions, and have all kinds of implications. I hope we're ready for some of the things that could happen, and flexible enough to deal with the unexpected.

But this guy being dead is a good thing. He wrought only death and misery in the world.

"What'd y'all order a dead guy for?"
-- Jayne Cobb, Firefly

 

[spaminator]

Killing of Iranian general sparks concerns for safety of Canadian troops
Canadian Press
Published:
January 3, 2020
Updated:
January 3, 2020 1:46 PM EST
A Canadian Forces door gunner keeps watch as his Griffon helicopter goes on a mission, Feb. 20, 2017 in northern Iraq. Ryan Remiorz / THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says the safety of Canadians in the Middle East is the government’s “paramount concern” after an American air strike killed a top Iranian general.
Gen. Qassem Soleimani was the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, and was killed last night in Baghdad, Iraq. U.S. President Donald Trump accused Soleimani of “plotting to kill” many Americans, and the death has prompted a vow of “harsh retaliation” by Iran’s supreme leader.
“Canada is in contact with our international partners. The safety and well-being of Canadians in Iraq and the region, including our troops and diplomats, is our paramount concern,” he said in a statement.
“We call on all sides to exercise restraint and pursue de-escalation.”
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TOWHEY: Attack on Iran's terror chief justifiable
MALCOLM: The killing of Soleimani deserves support from all
There are 850 Canadian Forces members deployed throughout Iraq, in efforts to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and to train Iraqi forces.
Story continues below
A spokesman for Champagne didn’t answer a question from The Canadian Press about whether Canada had been consulted on the strike, or when Canada was informed.
According to a series of statements, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo worked phones Friday morning, talking to his counterparts in allied governments and other world powers such as China, but neither Canada nor the United States indicated any top-level communication between them had happened by mid-day.
A former foreign-policy adviser to the Canadian government says the government is right to be concerned.
Retaliation from the general’s supporters is likely after the three-day mourning period ordered by Iran’s supreme leader, who considered Soleimani a son, said Shuvaloy Majumdar, a senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier institute.
“We can expect … there will be a wide range of asymmetric attacks against principally American assets but also quite possibly Western ones,” Majumdar said.
“So I think that as we enter this new chapter, this is going to be a very significant question for how Canadians and the Canadian government respond to the security of our soldiers but also the advancing of our interests.”
Majumdar advised the former Conservative government on foreign policy for years, including on the decision to list Soleimani’s organization, the Quds Force, as a terrorist entity.
He called the leader’s death “the most consequential strike that has happened against a terrorist leader since the beginning of the so-called war on terror.”
“He oversaw a state-backed, industrial-scale, mechanized terrorism outfit that since the late 1990s, since he led the Quds Force, has become the most sophisticated terrorism (organization) the world has ever known.”
The strike also killed a leader in an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq, a sometime Iraqi politician and U.S.-designated terrorist known as Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh appeared to condemn the U.S. decision.
“The U.S.’s actions in Iran have brought us closer to another disastrous war in the Middle East,” he said in a statement on Twitter.
“The prime minister needs to act quickly with other countries to de-escalate the situation and not be drawn into the path that President Trump is taking.”
In each of his calls to representatives of other countries, Pompeo said the U.S. is committed to de-escalating tensions in the Middle East that have soared since an Iranian-backed militia killed an American contractor and the U.S. responded with strikes against it.
That set off violent pro-Iran protests outside the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
–with files from The Associated Press
http://torontosun.com/news/national...sparks-concerns-for-safety-of-canadian-troops

 

[spaminator]

LILLEY: Canada needs to stand firm against Iran
Brian Lilley
Published:
January 3, 2020
Updated:
January 3, 2020 7:04 PM EST
This handout image -- released courtesy of the U.S. defence department -- shows a soldier with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, assigned to the Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Central Command, reinforcing the Baghdad Embassy compound in Iraq on January 3, 2020
When it comes to Canada-Iran relations, tricky is the key word and that hasn’t been helped by the Trudeau government’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde approach to relations with the Mullahs in Tehran.
This latest surgical strike by the Trump administration to take out Iran’s “terrorist in chief” Qasem Soleimani shows just how things remain difficult.
Somewhere deep in my closet is a t-shirt from a soccer club in Palatine, Ill., saying, “Thank you Canada!” with eight soccer balls across the shirt — one for each of the American hostages our diplomats helped free in 1979. It was a brave move for then-ambassador Ken Taylor who risked the safety of our own diplomats to help our neighbour and ally.
From that time forward, Canada’s relations with Iran were difficult, but we maintained them until 2012 when Stephen Harper’s government cut relations.
Iranian demonstrators chant slogans during a protest against the assassination of the Iranian Maj.-Gen. Qassem Soleimani in front of United Nation office in Tehran, Iran on Jan. 3, 2020. (West Asia News Agency)
John Baird, who served as Harper’s foreign affairs minister at the time, told me in a phone interview Friday that the main motivating reason for shutting down diplomatic relations with Iran was the safety of our civil servants.
Story continues below
“Our diplomats would have been in danger,” noting that mobs in Iran had attacked many embassies over the years and that many of our allies had left the country, making Canada a more likely target for the next mob.
“We were repulsed by their material support for terrorism, their terrible human rights record,” Baird said of the decision to pull out of Tehran while insisting the main reason was the safety of Canada’s diplomats.
Seven years after that decision to break off diplomatic ties, there remains a break in relations, despite Justin Trudeau’s promise to make nice with Iran.
As they came to power in 2015, the Trudeau Liberals denounced the former Harper government’s stance. Then-foreign affairs minister Stephane Dion would regularly tell reporters that the Harper Conservatives had been “ideological” in kicking Iranian diplomats out of Canada and freezing relations with the biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world.
Four years later, the Trudeau Liberals have effectively adopted the Harper-era policies if not the tone.
In response to the Trump strike against Iran’s top terrorist sponsor, Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Phillipe Champagne said he was concerned about the safety of our troops in the region but then went on:
“We call on all sides to exercise restraint and pursue de-escalation. Our goal is and remains a united and stable Iraq.
Canada has long been concerned by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Qods Force, led by Qasem Soleimani, whose aggressive actions have had a destabilizing effect in the region and beyond.”
Saying you are “concerned” about a group that has funded or armed conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Bahrain.
“Their blood is all over it,” Baird said of the many regional conflicts.
He called Soleimani a terrorist — not a general — and Baird is absolutely right.
Shuvaloy Majumdar, a former advisor to Baird and currently the Munk senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, said Soleimani should have been taken out a long time ago.
“I hope the mounting and unequivocal evidence of this regime supporting terror will make our government stand on the right side,” Majumdar said.
“It doesn’t serve Canadian interests well to have a government that doesn’t see the threat for what it is.”
Baird said it is time for Canada to stand with countries that share the same interests to make sure that Iran is held to account. He also noted that this strike by the Americans was a reaction, not a provocation based on what happened with the attack on their embassy earlier this week.
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“These were Shiite Militias, backed by Iran, that attempted to breach the American embassy,” Baird said.
Wise words at a time when the knee jerk reaction is to always blame America, always blame Trump. Iran is a bad actor not only in the Middle East but around the world and has been for decades.
We would do well to remember that.
http://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/lilley-canada-needs-to-stand-firm-against-iran

 

[Serryah]

This could go in a lot of different directions, and have all kinds of implications. I hope we're ready for some of the things that could happen, and flexible enough to deal with the unexpected.

But this guy being dead is a good thing. He wrought only death and misery in the world.

"What'd y'all order a dead guy for?"
-- Jayne Cobb, Firefly

IMO the good of his dead is outweighed and outdone by the likely chaos that could come of it.


Now admittedly Iran may not do anything at all.


However.


If they don't, then THEIR government will likely get toppled by harder liners than those in power. Which means Iran has to do something to show their people that they won't tolerate it. It's a matter of magnitude now. Sanctions might be iffy and backfire on them. Push the International community to hold Trump accountable might work considering the amount of dislike he's got from other leaders (and TBH, giving them a reason to slam Trump in his place might please too many of them).


I don't think it'll lead to war, but possible conflict...and the thing is, with Trump leaving the Kurds to rot in Syria, I don't see many allies in the region rushing quickly to help them and even Israel might not do much especially with it's political problems right now.

 

[spaminator]

too bad the missiles didn't have nuclear warheads.

 

[spaminator]

Iranian Dead Guy

dead muzzie bastard would have also been acceptable.

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

dead muzzie bastard would have also been acceptable.

Yeah, but I'm not a religious bigot, so it never crossed my mind.

 

[petros]

Saint Homobonus

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

Saint Homobonus

Nope, just not shit-scared of anybody who doesn't look, think, and act like me.

I'm genuinely sorry you are.

 

[spaminator]

LILLEY: NDP MPPs sing and chant as dead terrorist honoured
Brian Lilley
Published:
January 5, 2020
Updated:
January 5, 2020 5:41 PM EST
NDP MPPs Marit Stiles and Rima Berns-McGown are pictured at a rally outside the U.S. Consulate on Saturday where dead Iranian terrorist Qasem Soleimani was celebrated. Both elected officials showed up at the rally outside the U.S. Consulate on University Ave. where protesters showed support for Soleimani
When a terrorist is killed, some people cheer, some shrug, but two NDP MPPs thought it best to go to a solidarity rally where the terrorist was mourned and honoured.
NDP education critic Marit Stiles, yes the one who thinks she should be in charge of the education system, and Rima Berns-McGown, the critic for poverty and homelessness, were out in full support of an anti-American rally where dead terrorist Qasem Soleimani was celebrated.
Both elected officials showed up at the rally outside the U.S. Consulate on University Ave. where protesters showed support for Soleimani and denounced American President Donald Trump.
And, of course, they did all this while surrounded by flags that should give plenty of people pause.
There were flags from the Iraqi paramilitary group, the PMF or Popular Mobilization Forces, and of course, a flag from the terrorist group, Hezbollah, one of the groups that the dead Solemani helped fund and assist with military and terrorist activities.
Story continues below
“About to speak at the Toronto anti-war rally. Come on out if you’re able,” Berns McGown tweeted.
“Proud to join @beyrima at the rally. We must stand together against US aggression in Iran. We must stand for peace,” Stiles tweeted.
This was more than an anti-war rally and the killing of Soleimani was hardly “US aggression” as Stiles put it.
Soleimani was head of the Quds Force, a division of the Iranian military responsible for activities outside of Iran. The Quds Force itself is a banned terrorist organization in Canada which according to the federal government, “provides arms, funding and paramilitary training to extremist groups, including the Taliban, Lebanese Hizballah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.”
Add to that their support for armed groups in Syria and their part in the ongoing conflict in Yemen and you get the picture that Soleimani was no saint. Yet, here we have two senior members of the Ontario NDP — two elected members and critics in the legislature — at a rally where this man was mourned and celebrated and the Americans denounced.
I asked Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath for comment but her office declined instead directing me to a statement from the party office.
“This photo was taken at an event organized as a rally in support of peace,” the statement said.
“Like many people throughout the world, Ontario’s NDP MPPs hope for a stable, lasting peace in Iraq and throughout the region. Flags or banners carried by others at the pro-peace rally are not endorsed by any NDP MPPs in attendance.”
Well, maybe not, but it gets hard to say so when you are photographed with them flying over your head.
I’m not one for the gotcha game of saying a politician supports this or that cause because someone stopped them in the street or at an event and asked for a photo. I get asked for photos from people all the time and I don’t always know who the person is.
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Standing and posing under flags of terrorist or paramilitary groups while singing and chanting at an event where a dead terrorist is being honoured is another thing.
Stiles and Bern-McGown should know better, that they didn’t perhaps speaks to a problem in the NDP.
Horwath’s party continues to attract radicals who are far outside the mainstream of Canadian politics; it’s time she practiced some political hygiene.
http://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/lilley-ndp-mpps-sing-and-chant-as-dead-terrorist-honoured

 

[NZDoug]

This could go in a lot of different directions, and have all kinds of implications. I hope we're ready for some of the things that could happen, and flexible enough to deal with the unexpected.
But this guy being dead is a good thing. He wrought only death and misery in the world.
"What'd y'all order a dead guy for?"
-- Jayne Cobb, Firefly

Trying to bring a Peace deal between the Saudi Arabians and Iran would be bad for ISIS.
That explains everything.
....................................
"The bombshell facts were delivered by caretaker Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi, during an extraordinary, historic parliamentary session in Baghdad on Sunday.
Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani had flown into Baghdad on a normal carrier flight, carrying a diplomatic passport. He had been sent by Tehran to deliver, in person, a reply to a message from Riyadh on de-escalation across the Middle East. Those negotiations had been requested by the Trump administration.
So Baghdad was officially mediating between Tehran and Riyadh, at the behest of Trump. And Soleimani was a messenger. Adil Abdul-Mahdi was supposed to meet Soleimani at 8:30 am, Baghdad time, last Friday. But a few hours before the appointed time, Soleimani died as the object of a targeted assassination at Baghdad airport.
Let that sink in – for the annals of 21st century diplomacy. Once again: it does not matter whether the assassination order was issued by President Trump, the US Deep State or the usual suspects – or when. After all, the Pentagon had Soleimani on its sights for a long time, but always refused to go for the final hit, fearing devastating consequences.
Now, the fact is that the United States government – on foreign soil, as a guest nation – has assassinated a diplomatic envoy who was on an official mission that had been requested by the United States government itself.
Baghdad will formally denounce this behavior to the United Nations. However, it would be idle to expect UN outrage about the US killing of a diplomatic envoy. International law was dead even before 2003’s Shock and Awe.
Mahdi Army is back
Under these circumstances, it’s no wonder the Iraqi Parliament approved a non-binding resolution asking the Iraqi government to expel foreign troops by cancelling a request for military assistance from the US.
Translation: Yankee go home.
Predictably, Yankee will refuse the demand. Trump: “If they do ask us to leave, if we don’t do it in a very friendly basis, we will charge them sanctions like they’ve never seen before ever. It’ll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame.”

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

Trying to bring a Peace deal between the Saudi Arabians and Iran would be bad for ISIS.
That explains everything.

Nothing "explains everything."

Though "Donny Dodger is an imbecile" comes pretty close.

 

[spaminator]

Iran to continue nuclear enrichment with no limitations
Reuters
Published:
January 5, 2020
Updated:
January 5, 2020 3:33 PM EST
In this handout file picture provided by Iran's Atomic Energy Organization on November 4, 2019, shows IR-8 centrifuges at Natanz nuclear power plant, some 300 kilometres south of capital Tehran. (HO/Atomic Energy Organization of Ir/AFP via Getty Images)
DUBAI — Iran announced on Sunday it would abandon limitations on enriching uranium, taking a further step back from commitments to a 2015 nuclear deal with six major powers, but it would continue to cooperate with the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
Iran had been expected to announce its latest stance on the deal this weekend. But its announcement coincided with a major escalation of hostilities with Washington following the U.S. killing of top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike on Friday in Baghdad.
State television said Iran would not respect any limits set down in the pact on the country’s nuclear work: whether the limit on its number of uranium enrichment centrifuges to its enrichment capacity, the level to which uranium could be enriched, the amount of stockpiled enriched uranium or Iran’s nuclear Research and Development activities.
“Iran will continue its nuclear enrichment with no restrictions …. and based on its technical needs,” a government statement cited by television said.
Iran has steadily overstepped the deal’s limits on its nuclear activities in response to the United States’ withdrawal from the accord in 2018 and Washington’s reimposition of sanctions that have crippled Iran’s oil trade.
Story continues below
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but your article continues below.
Under the nuclear deal, Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of most international sanctions.
Relations between Tehran and Washington sharply deteriorated after President Donald Trump’s withdrawal of the United States from the deal. Iran has criticized European powers for failing to salvage the pact by shielding its economy from U.S. sanctions.
Sunday’s statement said Tehran can quickly reverse its steps if U.S. sanctions are removed.
“This step is within JCPOA (deal) & all 5 steps are reversible upon EFFECTIVE implementation of reciprocal obligations,” tweeted Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
Mark Fitzpatrick, associate fellow and nuclear non-proliferation expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Iran’s latest step left room for diplomacy.
“They are not saying how far they will push the enrichment or the number of centrifuges they’ll operate,” Fitzpatrick told Reuters. “I think they have reserved a lot of room for negotiation and for taking further steps if they need to.”
‘MAXIMUM PRESSURE’
Washington says the “maximum pressure” campaign it started after withdrawing from the nuclear agreement will force Iran to negotiate a more sweeping deal, covering its ballistic missile program and its role in Middle Eastern conflicts. Iran says it will not negotiate a new deal.
Iraq calls for U.S., foreign military forces to leave after killing of Soleimani
Canadian-led NATO training mission in Iraq suspended amid security concerns
'CAUGHT HIM IN THE ACT': Trump says top Iran general 'terminated' to thwart attack on Americans
Tehran has rejected Western assertions that it has sought to develop nuclear weapons.
Iran has already breached many of the deal’s restrictions on its nuclear activities, including on the purity to which it enriches uranium, its stock of enriched uranium, which models of centrifuge it enriches uranium with and where it enriches uranium.
It has, however, not gone far over the purity allowed – the deal sets a limit of 3.67% and Iran has stayed around 4.5% in recent months, well below the 20% it reached before the deal and the roughly 90% that is weapons-grade.
The deal as a whole was designed to increase the time Iran would need to obtain enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb if it wanted one – the main obstacle to producing a nuclear weapon – from around two or three months.
http://torontosun.com/news/world/iran-to-continue-nuclear-enrichment-with-no-limitations

 

[NZDoug]

ETRA, EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT !
..................
Iran's nuclear program was launched in the 1950s with the help of the United States as part of the Atoms for Peace program.[3] The participation of the United States and Western European governments in Iran's nuclear program continued until the 1979 Iranian Revolution that toppled the last Shah of Iran.[4] Following the 1979 Revolution, most of the international nuclear cooperation with Iran was cut off. In 1981, Iranian officials concluded that the country's nuclear development should continue. Negotiations took place with France in the late 1980s and with Argentina in the early 1990s, and agreements were reached. In the 1990s, Russia formed a joint research organization with Iran, providing Iran with Russian nuclear experts and technical information.
more
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_program_of_Iran

 

[Serryah]

So Iran pulled out of the deal with Europe.


How exactly is the world safer thanks to Trump?

 

[taxslave]

Trump seems to be the only leader with the balls to stand up to the terrorists. That, in the long run is the only way there will ever be peace in the region.

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

Trump seems to be the only leader with the balls to stand up to the terrorists. That, in the long run is the only way there will ever be peace in the region.

Because oppressive foreigners killing your leaders and imposing their will on people has historically led to peace.

 

[pgs]

Because oppressive foreigners killing your leaders and imposing their will on people has historically led to peace.

Yes, it is the only thing that ever has .

 

[spaminator]

LILLEY: Shame on those who support a dead terrorist over democracies
Brian Lilley
Published:
January 6, 2020
Updated:
January 6, 2020 6:18 PM EST
NDP MPPs Marit Stiles and Rima Berns-McGown are pictured at a rally outside the U.S. Consulate on Saturday where dead Iranian terrorist Qasem Soleimani was celebrated. Both elected officials showed up at the rally outside the U.S. Consulate on University Ave. where protesters showed support for Soleimani
At what point does your moral compass become so warped that your hatred for America actually sees you embrace or stand with terrorist groups?
This isn’t a theoretical question in Canada these days, especially after protests this weekend over the American killing of Iranian general and terrorist Qasem Soleimani. In an attack ordered by President Donald Trump, Soleimani was blown to bits near the Baghdad airport in Iraq.
What was an Iranian general doing in Iraq? It was part of his job.
A supporter of the Houthis in Saadam, Yemen has a poster attached to his waist of Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force, who was killed in an air strike at Baghdad airport, during a rally to denounce the U.S. killing on Jan. 6, 2020. NAIF RAHMA / REUTERS
He was head of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and therefore, according to Canadian law, the head of a terrorist organization. The Quds Force is responsible for Iranian military activity outside of Iran’s borders and that includes Iraq where Soleimani had been active.
According to the federal government’s listing of banned terrorist groups, Solemani’s Qud’s Force is the “clandestine branch” of the Revolutionary Guard in charge of exporting Iran’s revolution by “facilitating terrorist operations.” That includes providing arms, training and funding to groups such as Taliban, Lebanese Hizballah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and several others.
Story continues below
Soleimani was the head of this organization, key to its activities and to its success.
So why then were there Canadians out protesting America’s strike against a man who has exported death and destruction throughout the Middle East? I’ve never seen or heard of these same people protesting Soleimani’s work before his death.
Did we see elected officials like Ontario NDP MPPs Marit Stiles or Rima Berns-McGown out protesting against Soleimani exporting arms and destruction to Yemen?
If it happened, then I didn’t see it or hear it. It doesn’t show up on their Twitter feeds or official statements. I’ve already written about the appearance of these two officials at a protest organized by a former NDP candidate.
The NDP has a problem associating with radicals well outside of the political mainstream, radicals that don’t support anything remotely resembling western democratic ideals. Leader Andrea Horwath needs to start dealing with this and pushing the radicals out.
Yet the NDP is hardly alone.
There are too many Canadians who support terrorists over our allies.
This could be dismissed as simple-minded, anti-Trump behaviour, but let’s face it, we saw the same behaviour during the Bush years and to a degree, even in the Obama years when drone strikes like the one that killed Soleimani increased.
What we unfortunately have are people so opposed to America, to “American imperialism” — or whatever agenda they claim to despise — that they are willing to stand up on Canadian streets and support a terrorist.
How else to explain people not only praising a dead terrorist but willing to start fights on Canadian streets like we saw in Toronto this past weekend?
LILLEY: NDP MPPs sing and chant as dead terrorist honoured
LILLEY: Shootings up but Trudeau Liberals look to the wrong solution
LILLEY: Canada needs to stand firm against Iran
Who in their right mind would want to give up Canadian democracy, or American democracy, where dissent is allowed and protests encouraged versus Iran, or the ideals they want to export, where the dissent and protests are shut down?
I don’t want to live in a country where protests like this are outlawed, forbidden or shut down but I do want to expose those who take part. We need to know who they are, be aware of them and yes, even shame them.
http://torontosun.com/opinion/colum...who-support-a-dead-terrorist-over-democracies

 

[Serryah]

LILLEY: Shame on those who support a dead terrorist over democracies
Brian Lilley
Published:
January 6, 2020
Updated:
January 6, 2020 6:18 PM EST
NDP MPPs Marit Stiles and Rima Berns-McGown are pictured at a rally outside the U.S. Consulate on Saturday where dead Iranian terrorist Qasem Soleimani was celebrated. Both elected officials showed up at the rally outside the U.S. Consulate on University Ave. where protesters showed support for Soleimani
At what point does your moral compass become so warped that your hatred for America actually sees you embrace or stand with terrorist groups?
This isn’t a theoretical question in Canada these days, especially after protests this weekend over the American killing of Iranian general and terrorist Qasem Soleimani. In an attack ordered by President Donald Trump, Soleimani was blown to bits near the Baghdad airport in Iraq.
What was an Iranian general doing in Iraq? It was part of his job.
A supporter of the Houthis in Saadam, Yemen has a poster attached to his waist of Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force, who was killed in an air strike at Baghdad airport, during a rally to denounce the U.S. killing on Jan. 6, 2020. NAIF RAHMA / REUTERS
He was head of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and therefore, according to Canadian law, the head of a terrorist organization. The Quds Force is responsible for Iranian military activity outside of Iran’s borders and that includes Iraq where Soleimani had been active.
According to the federal government’s listing of banned terrorist groups, Solemani’s Qud’s Force is the “clandestine branch” of the Revolutionary Guard in charge of exporting Iran’s revolution by “facilitating terrorist operations.” That includes providing arms, training and funding to groups such as Taliban, Lebanese Hizballah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and several others.
Story continues below
Soleimani was the head of this organization, key to its activities and to its success.
So why then were there Canadians out protesting America’s strike against a man who has exported death and destruction throughout the Middle East? I’ve never seen or heard of these same people protesting Soleimani’s work before his death.
Did we see elected officials like Ontario NDP MPPs Marit Stiles or Rima Berns-McGown out protesting against Soleimani exporting arms and destruction to Yemen?
If it happened, then I didn’t see it or hear it. It doesn’t show up on their Twitter feeds or official statements. I’ve already written about the appearance of these two officials at a protest organized by a former NDP candidate.
The NDP has a problem associating with radicals well outside of the political mainstream, radicals that don’t support anything remotely resembling western democratic ideals. Leader Andrea Horwath needs to start dealing with this and pushing the radicals out.
Yet the NDP is hardly alone.
There are too many Canadians who support terrorists over our allies.
This could be dismissed as simple-minded, anti-Trump behaviour, but let’s face it, we saw the same behaviour during the Bush years and to a degree, even in the Obama years when drone strikes like the one that killed Soleimani increased.
What we unfortunately have are people so opposed to America, to “American imperialism” — or whatever agenda they claim to despise — that they are willing to stand up on Canadian streets and support a terrorist.
How else to explain people not only praising a dead terrorist but willing to start fights on Canadian streets like we saw in Toronto this past weekend?
LILLEY: NDP MPPs sing and chant as dead terrorist honoured
LILLEY: Shootings up but Trudeau Liberals look to the wrong solution
LILLEY: Canada needs to stand firm against Iran
Who in their right mind would want to give up Canadian democracy, or American democracy, where dissent is allowed and protests encouraged versus Iran, or the ideals they want to export, where the dissent and protests are shut down?
I don’t want to live in a country where protests like this are outlawed, forbidden or shut down but I do want to expose those who take part. We need to know who they are, be aware of them and yes, even shame them.
http://torontosun.com/opinion/colum...who-support-a-dead-terrorist-over-democracies

It's good the General is dead.


The how is what people should find objectionable.


Siding with Iran to mourn the man himself I find questionable.


Siding with people who demand answers from a government/country who refuse to give those answers is completely reasonable and should be expected.


When I first read about it, the members said they were there to protest more so the process and lack of anything to show proof of why the man deserved to die now, on a foreign country's soil. There's no evidence coming from the US to prove why they took the step they did.


If it's anything different than that, then yeah, I'd question it.