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Jan. 14, 2021 - Epoch Times
11:54
The Real Reason Why Trump Took Out Iranian General Qasem Soleimani | Larry Elder Show
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About President Trump's decision to authorize a drone strike to take out the top Iranian general Qasim Soleimani, here's what the New York Times said.
General Soleimani did not have to be hunted.
A high-ranking official of the Iranian government, he was in plain sight for years.
All that was required was a president to decide to pull the trigger.
Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama never did.
Mr.
Bush's administration made a conscious decision not to kill General Soleimani when he was in the crosshairs, and Mr.
Obama's administration evidently never made an effort to pursue him.
Both reasoned that killing the most powerful general in Iran would only risk a wider war with the country.
So, both Presidents Bush and Obama did a cost-benefit analysis and decided taking out Soleimani was not worth the risk.
That ain't what Obama's former United Nations Ambassador and National Security Advisor Susan Rice said.
There's been a bunch of reporting over a period of years that the U.S. had previously assessed that it could be more dangerous to kill Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force in Iran, than to allow him to live, even when U.S. forces did potentially have a shot at him.
I just wanted to ask, there's a lot of discussion about that reporting now that this airstrike has happened and that Soleimani is dead.
What's your, what can you tell us in a non-classified setting here about that reporting, whether it's accurate?
And is there any reason that we should think that that calculation somehow changed before this airstrike?
Well, to my knowledge, Rachel, and certainly while I was national security adviser, the Obama administration was not presented with an opportunity by our intelligence community or by the U.S. military to strike Qasem Soleimani.
Had we been presented with such an opportunity, what we would have done is weighed very carefully and very deliberately the risks versus the potential rewards.
Now, did she say that neither the intelligence community nor the military presented Obama with an opportunity to kill Soleimani?
Yes, she did.
The Obama administration was not presented with an opportunity by our intelligence community or by the US military to strike Qasem Soleimani.
Yes, that's exactly what she said.
Now, the next line of attack against Trump is that Soleimani did not present an imminent threat, as the president said.
You put out a statement a short time ago that says the decision to eliminate General Soleimani was in response to imminent threats to American lives.
What was the nature of those imminent threats?
John, I can't talk too much about the nature of the threats, but the American people should know that President Trump's decision to remove Qasem Soleimani from the battlefield saved American lives.
There's no doubt about that.
They were aiming to take down significant amounts of Americans that would have undoubtedly killed locals too, Iraqis, Lebanese, Syrians perhaps, people all throughout the region.
This was an attack that would have been at some scale.
We can't talk much about the details, but suffice it to say the American people can know that the decision that President Trump made To take Qasem Soleimani down saved American lives.
President Trump is speaking now.
Let's listen.
Executed a flawless precision strike that killed the number one terrorist anywhere in the world, Qasem Soleimani.
Soleimani was plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel, but we caught him in the act And terminated him.
Imminent threat?
The man had the blood of over 600 Americans on his hands.
He was a walking, talking imminent threat.
I thought we were at war.
Now, the Democratic rivals all agreed that Soleimani was a bad guy, but...
Let's be clear.
Soleimani, General Soleimani, was the architect behind the slaughter of countless lives in the region.
The deaths of U.S. troops are on his hands, and no American mourns his passing.
He deserves to be brought to justice.
He deserved to be brought to justice for his crimes.
But no matter how rightly reviled he was in the West, he was a senior figure of the Iranian government.
And there's no doubt that Iran will, in fact, respond.
Indeed, they've already vowed vengeance.
But...
We never should have been in this position to begin with.
This assassination of General Soleimani is reckless, and it has been part of an escalating series of attacks that the Trump administration has put forward.
And it has put our troops at risk, it has put our diplomats at risk, and they're already changing their story about the whole thing.
One issue that I know is on everybody's mind, and that is that last night, as you know, a US airstrike killed Iran's most notorious military commander, a murderer with the blood of Americans on his hands.
And without more information, I can only hope that the president has carefully thought out the national security implications.
Of this attack on our country and the grave risks that it involves.
But given his track record and his history of making reckless decisions and impulsive decisions that undermine U.S. strategic objectives and weaken our allies, particularly recently in Syria, there's every reason, I think, to be deeply concerned.
But hopefully he's done the right thing and we'll see what happens.
Now, Democrats in the media do not trust Donald Trump and, of course, expressed a great deal of skepticism.
There is absolutely no reason for anyone in the U.S. to credit anything the president or his administration says about matters of life and death and war and peace until it is demonstrably verified.
Full stop.
I think it's time to back up a tad.
Who exactly was Qasim Soleimani and why was it important for him to be killed?
Iran is waging a campaign here for control of Iraq and also for its influence in the wider Middle East.
And at the heart of that campaign, in the shadows, has been one man.
General Qasem Soleimani, head of the Quds Force, the covert external wing of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
In Tehran he has the ear of Ayatollah Khamenei himself, but in Iraq he's been cited taking personal command of Shia militia groups.
Soldiers and politicians blanch at the very mention of his name.
Now, after Soleimani was killed, former Trump Ambassador Nikki Haley tweeted this, Kasim Soleimani was an arch-terrorist with American blood on his hands.
His demise should be applauded by all who seek peace and justice.
Proud of President Trump for doing the strong and right thing.
End of quote.
And back in September 2018, the then-UN Ambassador Haley issued a warning to Soleimani and to Iran.
Iranian general and head of the IRGC Quds Force Soleimani is leading an effort to influence the composition of a new Iraqi government.
I remind my colleagues that Soleimani was banned from traveling outside of Iran by the Security Council in 2007.
That ban was reaffirmed in 2015 with the passage of Security Council Resolution 2231.
Despite this unambiguous travel ban, Soleimani has practically taken up residence in Iraq since the May elections.
This fact was noted by the Secretary General in the most recent 2231 implementation report.
And let's be clear what Soleimani is up to in Iraq.
He is not there to help create a government in Baghdad that is responsive to the Iraqi people.
He is there to build an Iraqi government that is under the control of the Iranian regime.
Again, Soleimani was a walking, talking, imminent threat, 24-7, 365 days out of the year.
Now, back in 1996, when the Iran Revolutionary Guard orchestrated a bombing attack, Joe Biden said this, Do you believe that a round is behind us?
Well, I don't know, but the fact is, it looks like this.
It looks like this.
You want to know what they do?
It's an act of war if they do.
And they yield their sovereignty to do.
Wiretaps won't change that.
It's an act of war.
And so the United States does what?
It could take whatever action it deems appropriate.
Now, what would a President Joe Biden call the recent rocket attack that killed an American contractor?
A U.S. contractor has been killed in an attack on an Iraqi military base.
Several rockets were fired into the base near Kirkuk, but hassles both Iraqi and U.S. troops, several service personnel, were also injured.
Simona Fultin has more from Baghdad on that attack.
This attack occurred last night.
It was several rockets that hit inside the K-1 military base, which houses both U.S. forces as well as Iraqi forces.
And this base is used to launch important operations against ISIL, who have staged an insurgency in the surrounding mountains.
Now, this is just the latest in a spate of similar rocket attacks, but it's the first time that we're actually seeing U.S. casualties.
Iran was warned.
We will not stand for the Islamic Republic of Iran to take actions that put American men and women in jeopardy.
Critics are saying that Soleimani posed no imminent threat.
Well, by that definition, neither did Osama Bin Laden, who was cowering in a hideout, or Saddam Hussein, who was cowering in a spider hole.
They were no longer on the battlefield, unlike Qasim Soleimani.
As for those criticizing President Trump for pulling from the Iran deal, I have a question.
Isn't there something fundamentally corrupt about a deal which, if one side unilaterally pulls out like we did, the other side kills you?
Think about it.
Finally, I'm getting a lot of good feedback about our Epoch Times videos, and I appreciate it.
I got a phone call, however, from this young lady who felt I wasn't working hard enough.
Check it out.
Hi, Larry.
I am so upset, and I have such a big complaint about you.
You're not on the radio Saturday and Sunday.
And I don't know what the hell to do with myself.
I am so upset.
You also take breaks.
Breaks.
Five minutes is too much of a break.
I don't think you should have any breaks.
Okay.
All right.
I hope things will change.
I hope to hear you more often on the radio.
God bless you.
Happy, healthy New Year to you.
And keep your s*** together.
So, I should work Saturdays and Sundays and not take any breaks?
What, put a bedpan next to my studio?
Please!
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery!
I'm Larry Elder, and this has been The Larry Elder Show for Epic Times.
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