Qassem Soleimani's stay in Baghdad was a short one which ended quite suddenly on January 3. On January 8, Ukrainian International Airlines flight 752, traveling from Tehran to Kyiv, and finally destined for Toronto never made it out the suburbs of the Iranian capital before similarly ending, quite suddenly.
U.S. drones got Soleimani and a small cadre of allies. According to Donald Trump and members of his administration, American intel had solid information, General Soleimani was in the midst of planning deadly attacks on at least four different United States embassies. These reports came from the same intelligence services the current President has refused to believe for three years running now. Yea, the same ones he has, in the past, routinely denounced as part of, The Deep State, plot which aims to delegitimize his election in 2016 and overthrow him before November of this year.
On Flight 752 there was a large number Canadian citizens, anywhere from 57 to 63 depending on who you read. There were also 82 Iranians, 11 Ukrainians plus 9 crew members, 10 Swedes, 7 Afghans, and 3 Germans. As near as anyone can tell none of them were plotting anything, other than in many cases, getting home.
Back in Washington, immediately after Soleimani and his crew were obliterated, at least one democratic candidate for president, Elizabeth Warren questioned the timing of the attack. Within days reports would surface that the President was getting heat to kill the Iranian commander from GOP ultra hawks--Senators he desperately needs on his side once the impeachment process gets to the upper chamber.
On January 8th Iran launched a barrage of rockets at locations that house U.S. troops in Iraq. It is unclear exactly how much carnage the, "revenge," attack was expected to cause because various sources claimed Iran had notified the Iraqi government of the impending assault prior to the launch. The Iraqis reportedly alerted American authorities and by the time the missiles arrived everyone was hunkered down. Hangers were damaged and, or destroyed as was some equipment, but no one was killed, or wounded.
None of this meant the Iranians trusted the U.S. not to strike back immediately. After all Trump was blustering manically on social media and TV threatening to destroy all things Persian, both new and old. The Iranian air defenses were on full alert, expecting God only knows what from the night skies. In the midst of all this chaos, some idiot at Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport, thought it would be perfectly safe to let Flight 752 take off. The Ukrainian pilot was naïve enough to believe him. Obviously the memo regarding the decision didn't make it to the local anti-aircraft batteries.
It took until today for the Iranians to admit they'd screwed the pooch. They initially claimed the crash was caused by a dire mechanical failure. Well yeah, sort of. Mechanical stuff does tend to fail when struck by a Tor-M1 surface to air missile. Iranian officials are now using the term, "A disastrous mistake," to describe the nightmare.
Well what do you expect? The Iranian government has its own reputation for being fast and loose with the truth. Combine their prevarications with Donald Trump's Adderall laced rants and there is no telling what the fuck either one of them are talking about, much less up to.
What we do know is 176 innocent souls are now lost. And apparently they died because Trump's domestic political crisis forced him to commit what might be called an act of war, Iran's obsession to prove it too has balls, and some jittery gunner overwhelmed by it all.
What a start to the new decade.
Ladies and gentlemen, as you suspected, the bar is most definitely open.
1-11-20
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