We all started this new year with the perception that this decade would bring about change. For some, that change would be professional; for others, that change would be in the form of personal growth. For the world, many of us hoped that change would come from men and women who would be less trigger happy and more eager to have an open dialogue.
Unfortunately, we were not paying attention. Our first wakeup call came on January 3rd with the assassination of Qasem Soleimani. The Iran and U.S. divide spans decades, and to try and explain the entire conflict would be exhausting and possibly passionately rebuked from not just both sides of the aisle here, but also on a global scale.
As I was once told long ago, truth is a matter of perception.
To sum up the current events in a neat bow, and bring you, the reader up to speed on what has taken place in the past three years, here is my take on the current battleground between Iran and the United States.
Summary of tensions:
Since President Trump decided to pull out of the Iran deal in 2017, tensions have been mounting between the two nations, and it took on a more aggressive tone when Trump decided to impose severe sanctions against Iran.
Since these sanctions were in place, both nations have taken political, and at times physical swipes at each other. One could call it, testing the “waters,” so to speak.
From capturing an ally oil tanker to shooting down a probing U.S. drone, both nations have been continually pushing one another to a boiling point.
That boiling point came to a head in Iraq. Right after Christmas, on December 27th, 2019. An American contractor was killed among other Iraqi military personnel by an Iranian backed militia group, Kataib Hezbollah, which the group denied any involvement with the attack.
The U.S. then responded by attacking Iranian backed militias within the region, which resulted in Iraqi citizens storming and attacking the U.S. embassy in Iraq, breaching and damaging the outer perimeter. Though the Iraqi military stepped in to break up the protests, the damage was done, and unfortunately, a set of options were brought to Trump’s table.
These options provide the president with a set of responses ranging from the extreme to the more reasonable appropriate actions that a wise leader would take.
The option that Trump picked was the extreme option, and that was assassinating Qasem Soleimani.
Who is Qasem Soleimani?
Qasem Soleimani was an Iranian Major General and leader of the Quds forces of Iran. From his start in the military in 1988 to his death in 2020, Soleimani rose among the ranks in the Iranian army and ended up leading and controlling the extraterritorial military and clandestine operations in service to Iran. Towards the latter part of his life, Soleimani was considered the second most powerful individual in Iran, second only to Ayatollah Khamenei, and also being the Ayatollah’s right-hand man.
To some, especially in the west, Soleimani was the leader of a shadowy organization that ran multiple militia groups in Syria and Iraq and was behind the deaths of many American troops. To others in Iran and its allies, Soleimani was considered a hero and legend. Someone that provided Iran with a barrier against all its enemies and a role model for all that knew him or served under him.
Perception, to one group he was a monster that needed to be removed from the game board; to another group he was more than just a military general.
Soleimani was a symbol.
When the Pentagon learned that Soleimani would be in Iraq, a decision was made to kill him. On January 3rd, A U.S. sanctioned drone strike attacked Soleimanis’ vehicle and his entourage just outside the Baghdad International Airport, Killing Soleimani, and other essential figures within his group.
This attack brought the U.S. and Iran dangerously close to World War 3. After the attack, Iran vowed for revenge, and for days, the world held it’s breath on what steps Iran would take to exact that revenge.
On January 8th, the world had its answer when Iran attacked two Iraqi bases that held U.S. troops within its walls. Strategically missing everyone and only causing minimal damage to the stations.
This attack was a way for Iran to save face and also send a clear message to Trump not to push their buttons. Unfortunately, as with any conflict, innocents end up paying the price for being caught in the middle.
A Ukrainian civilian aircraft that flew too close to one of the Iranian military bases in the early hours of January 8th, was shot down by an officer who mistook the civilian aircraft for a U.S. military response.
This tragedy was a shock to the world and to the nations that had its civilians on the airliner. For days, speculations were thrown as to how and what downed the airliner, until Iranian officials admitted to mistakenly shooting down the plane with missiles.
Looking at this new conflict at the dawn of a new decade, led me to contemplate how many countless issues similar to this current one also escalated to catastrophic levels… over impulsive decisions, brave words, and cries for bloody revenge.
How much time have we had to put aside our differences? Whether those differences deride from religious beliefs or the pigment of one’s skin tone? How much time have we been given to know better?
How much time have we been given to learn from our forefather’s mistakes and our past? When will we individually hold ourselves and those we elect to represent us on a global scale accountable? When does it end? The divide we set amongst ourselves that only hinders our evolution and deconstructs all the hard work our species has done thus far to advance us collectively?
2020 is a big year. A year that I hope none of us can hide behind falsehoods and half-truths anymore.
A year where we will be held accountable for our actions, and if there is any justice in this universe, a year that Trump will exit his role as president and pave the way for someone else to stand center stage.
Someone who values life over ego.