Pompeo Practically Laughs at Idea Iran Terror General Was Slain on 'Peace Mission'
It barely passed the laugh test.
A murky story that Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani – a man who devoted his life to spreading slaughter – was killed while pursuing a peace mission drew mockery Tuesday from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Speaking at a news conference, Pompeo fielded a question on the topic with barely concealed contempt.
“Anybody here believe that?” Pompeo asked reporters. “We know that wasn’t true.”
About that General Soleimani peace mission narrative… Pompeo not having it. Makes the media realize how ridiculous it sounds. pic.twitter.com/nUrtdxxbuH
— ForAmerica (@ForAmerica) January 7, 2020
The suggestion that Soleimani was actually acting as a kind of peacemaker to smooth over tensions between the historically antagonistic Sunni Muslim Arabs of Saudi Arabia and the Shiite Muslim Persians of Iran was floated on Sunday by Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, according to The Washington Post.
Considering that Soleimani’s death in a U.S. drone stroke came Thursday at Baghdad International Airport, three days seems to be a considerable period of time for someone to come up with the idea that the lifelong master of war had suddenly become interested in peace.
According to Agence France-Presse, via Yahoo, Pompeo was specifically rejecting Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Javad Zarif’s “assertion that Soleimani — a commander in charge of external relations for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — was on a diplomatic mission while he was in Baghdad.”
If a professional killer like Soleimani was on a “diplomatic mission,” it likely wasn’t the kind of diplomacy that wins Nobel Peace prizes.
And Pompeo, his voice dripping with sarcasm, made that clear.
“Zarif’s statement, his first statement that Soleimani was traveling to Baghdad on a diplomatic mission,” he said. “Anybody here believe that? Is there any history that would indicate that it was remotely possible that this kind gentleman, this diplomat of great order, Qassem Soleimani, had traveled to Baghdad for the idea of conducting a peace mission?
“I made you reporters laugh this morning, that’s fantastic.”
The answer to both questions, of course, is no.
Liberal media outlets like The New York Times might be trying to paint an attractive image of the dead general, but here’s how the U.S. Department of Defense described some of Soleimani’s more recent activities:
“General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region. General Soleimani and his Quds Force were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more. He had orchestrated attacks on coalition bases in Iraq over the last several months – including the attack on December 27th – culminating in the death and wounding of additional American and Iraqi personnel. General Soleimani also approved the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad that took place this week.“
That’s a picture much more familiar to those who know Soleimani had spent more than two decades as commander of the elite Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps – as bloody-minded and anti-American as any military operation as any that exists in the world.
Or as former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley put it in a Twitter post last week:
“Qassem Soleimani was an arch terrorist with American blood on his hands.”
Plenty of social media users who saw Pompeo’s speech Tuesday agreed with Pompeo’s handling of the questioning Tuesday:
The Dems can turn this guy into Gandhi… and #Kavanaugh into Ted Bundy
— Donald J Stallone (@donald_stallone) January 7, 2020
The American media sounds like they are @AlJazeera
— Tim Cherkassky (@TimCherkassky) January 7, 2020
Never heard such stupidity no wonder Trump makes them look like clowns
— Martin000008 (@Bluedragon588) January 7, 2020
This last one nailed it.
I don’t know how @SecPompeo kept from laughing out loud at the #TerroristSympathizers aka as free press the #media in the USA!
The #Democrat Media my God have become #Propagandists for #Iran!! God help us all.— Lilly McKim ?? (@lillymckim) January 7, 2020
Pompeo did manage to keep a straight face at the notion that the United States had killed a man on a mission of peace when it eliminated Soleimani from the earth.
But he also pointed up the essential antagonism of the mainstream media.
The reality is that very few people on earth — and none of the public — know exactly what Soleimani was doing in Baghdad on Thursday. But the fact that he was killed while meeting with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of the Iranian-backed militias of Iraq, is a pretty good indication it wasn’t exactly a Summer of Love moment.
In short, no sane person would believe the story of a man with a long, blood-soaked history was on a “diplomatic mission” when the United States finally got around to taking him out of action.
But plenty of liberals will.
They don’t pass the laugh test either.
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