Good primer article (2013) on Qassem Suleimani, Iranian commander.....

[KY_EnviroGuy]

we assassinated today.

The Shadow Commander
Qassem Suleimani is the Iranian operative who has been reshaping the Middle East. Now he’s directing Assad’s war in Syria.
By Dexter Filkins
September 23, 2013

Link to article: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/09/30/the-shadow-commander

(snips)

Suleimani took command of the Quds Force fifteen years ago, and in that time he has sought to reshape the Middle East in Iran’s favor, working as a power broker and as a military force: assassinating rivals, arming allies, and, for most of a decade, directing a network of militant groups that killed hundreds of Americans in Iraq. The U.S. Department of the Treasury has sanctioned Suleimani for his role in supporting the Assad regime, and for abetting terrorism. And yet he has remained mostly invisible to the outside world, even as he runs agents and directs operations. “Suleimani is the single most powerful operative in the Middle East today,” John Maguire, a former C.I.A. officer in Iraq, told me, “and no one’s ever heard of him.”

When Suleimani appears in public—often to speak at veterans’ events or to meet with Khamenei—he carries himself inconspicuously and rarely raises his voice, exhibiting a trait that Arabs call khilib, or understated charisma. “He is so short, but he has this presence,” a former senior Iraqi official told me. “There will be ten people in a room, and when Suleimani walks in he doesn’t come and sit with you. He sits over there on the other side of room, by himself, in a very quiet way. Doesn’t speak, doesn’t comment, just sits and listens. And so of course everyone is thinking only about him.”

Credit: ran across this on Natasha Bertrand's twitter page, see: https://twitter.com/NatashaBertrand She's an excellent resource for national security event news.

IMO, in the long term, this event will not end well for the United States, just as the Iraq war did not end well and we're still paying for it.

Unfortunately, Trump and his administration do not care about our long-term survival.....

[AJT]

1. Iran has a much larger and much more prepared military than Iraq.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

2. Absolutely. And a fully functional air force and navy.

KY............