Trump was short of breath. He was breathing heavily, like Darth Vader on an occupied planet. His labored speech and strange look did not match the comforting words. But the meaning was clear: the world gendarme received a ringing slap in the face, and he had one of two things left: to bite a bit and rush forward or smile pitifully and say: "It doesn’t hurt me at all." He chose the second option, which can only be rejoiced.
The situation reminded the same (exactly the opposite!) Incident in Syria, when Trump was fired by the Tomahawks, and Bashar Assad noticed that the rockets had flown into milk. This time, Trump was in the place of Assad. Let us hope that this humiliation for the lord of the half-world will prove to him a useful exercise in humility.
Now that this episode is behind us and has not led to a third world war or a large-scale regional conflict, we can conduct a short debriefing. The murder of Suleimani turned out to be a mistake and a big adventure, according to the exact definition of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Mike Pompeo, a former CIA officer and now secretary of state, threw Trump into this adventure with the support of the pro-Israel lobby, who always wants to fight Iran, as a teenager wants girls. They convinced the cornered president that this murder would immediately increase his course on the voters ’exchange, and even Adam Schiff, his chief prosecutor, would quit as an Israeli patriot and forget about impeachment.
Nothing of the kind happened. Trump voters have easier approved, that's right. They approve of any bomb strike. Trump inherited them from Reagan, who rehearsed the bombing of Moscow in a television studio.
The more skilled and competent Trump voters were horrified. They voted and supported Trump, who promised to end unnecessary Middle Eastern wars. And here is such an affront. “Hillary Clinton would have bombed Iran even faster and more decisively, as she bombed Libya,” they only have such consolation, but it does not completely console.
And the Democrats - opponents of Trump - immediately condemned the president, saying that, they say, Suleymani was, of course, the enemy of America, but now it was not the time to kill him.
However, the main negative (for the USA) result was the events in Iraq. The Iraqis - both pro-Iranian and anti-Iranian (and there are also many there) - were indignant at the unceremoniousness with which Trump neglected the opinion of the Iraqi prime minister and attacked the territory of Baghdad airport to kill the neighbor's leader. Muktada al-Sadr, an important Iraqi Shiite leader, considered pro-American and anti-Iranian, demanded that the American embassy and the entire American occupation army be driven out of Iraq. The Iraqi parliament also made a similar demand - to cease the activities of the pro-American coalition and proceed with the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, and the Americans considered it completely tame and obedient.
The deputies were greatly impressed by the speech of the Prime Minister of Iraq, who told the audience about the hidden causes of the Iraq crisis. As you may recall, until recently serious passions of another “color revolution” raged in Iraq, and a month ago, on December 1, Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi had to resign after about 400 protesters died.
In practice, he continues to “temporarily fulfill the duties of the prime minister,” and in that capacity, he spoke in parliament.
He said that the United States demanded that he give them half of all Iraqi oil to compensate for the reconstruction of Iraq, which suffered a lot - first from the American invasion and occupation, and then from the militants of the Islamic State *. He, according to him, refused to do this and gave the order for reconstruction to China, but he did not demand such a large fee.
According to the prime minister, Trump was annoyed, saying that, it’s a pity, President George W. Bush did not take all Iraqi oil as trophies and in payment for liberating the Iraqi people from the villain Saddam Hussein; and if the prime minister does not change his mind, the people will overthrow him.
And what would you think - indeed in Iraq there was a revolt against the government, and its participants began to die from sniper bullets. “They were third-party snipers - the American marins, they killed both policemen and demonstrators,” the prime minister said. He added: “When I first mentioned the third force — the snipers — they phoned from Washington and threatened me with death. Therefore, I resigned. "
After his speech, parliament quickly voted to neutralize the pro-American coalition and its withdrawal. (It is a pity that the Ukrainian Maidan did not hear this speech!)
This was the biggest damage to Trump and the United States from the killing of Suleimani. If the Americans really left, it would be possible to say that Sulejmani, by his death, achieved what he could not achieve in his whole life, namely, to drive the Americans out of the region. After all, after leaving Iraq, they could not have stayed in Syria. Until this desired result - the end of the American occupation - is far away. The US began to send embarrassing signals: “We are leaving”, “It was a mistake - we are not leaving”, “We are leaving, and we do not need your oil, but you will regret it.” These three responses were received by the Iraqi authorities in three days.
According to some indications, the Americans are going to strengthen their presence in Iraqi Kurdistan, the northern third of Iraq. They may try to tear it off, make it “independent” from Baghdad and completely subjugate it. And Kurdish militants, unfortunately, are always caught on American wiring.
Iran took a bold and risky step, striking an American military base. Many expected the US response to be scary. But in this case, the risk paid off. The Iranian leadership avenged Suleymani, showed that it could strike at the Americans, undermined American prestige in the region and in the world.
In life, unlike boxing, knockouts are rare. The United States will not disappear, Iran will not disappear, and Iraq and other participants in the events will not disappear. But in the last round, the Iranians win on points.
Russia played its game with dignity - it did not go into the game unnecessarily, did not speak out in vain, but also did not allow the enemies of Russia in Washington to blame everything on it. Russia condemned the killing of Suleimani. At the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, the commander of the operation of the Russian armed forces in Syria, Alexander Chayko, paid the last respects to General Kassem Suleimani and laid two wreaths: from the Russian Armed Forces and from the Russian Armed Forces in Syria. Russia appreciates its yesterday’s allies, as Suleymani’s soldiers and Russian soldiers fought together with the barmales. And the USA despises and throws the former allies - after all, Suleimani was also their ally during the fight against ISIS, but this did not help him. The alliance also did not help the Kurds of Syria (the Kurds of Iraq are already preparing to step on the same rake).
Therefore, Iraq is increasingly talking about the possibility of concluding allied relations with Russia when the Americans leave, and even try on the S-400, this symbol of Russian support. But this is already in the next installment.
* “Islamic State” (ISIS, ISIS) - the organization was recognized as terrorist by decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of December 29, 2014.
The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.