Was Soleimani an enemy of Americans? Without question, this was the case. But who created him? How did Soleimani become an enemy of the USA? Plain and simple, American policy is squarely to blame.
In short, it was 1953 when the CIA overthrew the democratic government of Iran and converted Shah Reza Pahlavi into an absolute monarch who promptly morphed into a brutal dictator infamous for the widespread torture & executions of his own people. The Shah’s new secret police (created in 1956), SAVAK, trained in kidnapping, torture and disappearing people by CIA, MI6 & MOSSAD, crudely propped up this iteration of Iranian ‘governance’ with domestic state terror to 1979.
By this time, Iranian people across widely divergent political paths had been long united in determination to be rid of both; the Shah and the foreign influence that had propped up his murderous rule for 25 years, leading to capture of the USA embassy by the Iranian student movement.
As it happens, the dust settled after the revolution of 1979 and it was the conservative ayatollahs came out on top and a theocratic republic had been established in Iran. Since, this Islamic republic has zealously refused the influence of the USA and Israel’s regional hegemony (Britain had faded from this equation as a major player but that could change.)
Who could blame the Iranians? There has been nothing short of ongoing decades hostility directed at Iran, resulting in an Iranian patriotism devoted to a sincere antipathy to Zionism, whether that of Israel’s “Yinon Plan” or the necrotic-apocalyptic Christian Zionism of the USA that is backing habitual Israeli regional-geopolitical misdemeanors; up to and inclusive of USA support for Israeli assassination of Iranian scientists in recent times, generating support for the ayatollahs across Iranian society.
Soleimani was brilliant at undermining USA/Israeli interests in Syria, Lebanon & Iraq. There is little doubt his efforts have helped the Houthis versus the Saudis in Yemen. He was also key in organizing the main effort which led to defeating the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (it were never a black & white world.) No doubt he would have seen Iran’s enemy al-Qaida (and its’ spinoff Islamic State) as a USA production and not without reason; al-Qaida was born out of the USA arming the Mujahideen against the Soviets in 1980s Afghanistan. This all goes to the Iranian understanding (context) of American-Israeli duplicity when the Americans and Israelis were arming both sides in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s (Iran-Contra) so both parties might better tear themselves to pieces.
Iran has little reason to be grateful to the USA in both; practical and historical terms. From an Iranian national point of view, Iran has every reason to be more than suspicious of any regional acts of the Americans, in practical terms creating perception leading to policy where Iranian national self preservation demands a hostile demeanor towards the USA.
Will the assassination of Suleimani change any of this? In terms of Iranian policy, no, it only reinforces the preceding. In terms of brilliance applied by the Iranians towards their perceived enemies, it could go either way; removing Suleimani might open to lesser or greater minds taking up his assigned duties. In terms of practical application of violence, likely yes, the Americans just opened themselves to the assassination of their own in what should have been off-limits territories: the international airports of this world. This last is consistent with the (as old as Rome) rule of reciprocity in the international common law. This was an overt act of war.
The assassination of Qassem Alì Soleimani was a tremendous blunder that is entirely at odds with Trump’s protestations he does not want war with Iran. But the assassination is entirely consistent with the apocalyptic (Fellowship) cult behind Mike Pence and the leadership at the Pentagon.
I’m no fan of Iran’s ayatollahs but there should be a genuflection to the facts: American policies create America’s enemies and Iran is no exception, rather this act is example of the American empire’s hubris.
Ronald Thomas West 