Not at all, please enlighten me. (And I'm not being sarcastic, I'll genuinely read what you have to write!)
No problem. To be brutally blunt, the issue in Iraq is simply the latest phase of a Sunni vs Shia conflict which has been fought tribally in the region for 1400+ years and won't ever be resolved in our lifetimes but lets start by showing what has been happening with Shia militias (the Iranian backed PMF mainly) in Iraq over the past 12 months and how the US has responded -
Jan 2020- Iran fires ballistic missiles into Iraq and shoots down Ukrainian airliner
Late Dec 2019 - US attacks Shia militia facilities after Rocket attack killed US contractor earlier in the Month - US Embassy then attacked for 2 days by Shia militias leading to the US killing of Suleimani and the leader of the PMF in a drone strike
Early Dec 2019 - US applies sanctions against the 3 main Shia militia leaders after their militia's killed 25 more protestors and wounded 130+ (
link) and after the militias constantly fire rockets at US bases eventually killing a US citizen (
link)
Nov 2019 - Iraqi Prime Minister resigns - Sunni militias firebomb Iran's Consulate in Najaf in revenge for Shia militias attacks on protestors (
link)
Oct 2019 - Suleimani orders Iraqi Shia militias to fight against anti-Shia protestors and they kill 107 and wound 6000+ over 6 days (
link)
Sept 2019 - Iran attacks Saudi Arabian oil terminals (link) and fires rockets at Israel (
link) after drones hit Shia militia arms dumps (
link)
Aug 2019 - US drone attacks Shia militia arms dump to attempt to prevent more rocket attacks (
link)
Jul 2019 - Iraqi Prime Minister tells Shia militias to return to military command or be disbanded - the militia leaders all agree but Suleimani tells the militias not to rejoin (
link)
Jun 2019 - Shia militia conduct a rocket attack an US run oil refinery (
link) whilst in Baghdad the Shia militia stormed the Bahrain embassy because it hosted a "US based peace talk between Arabs and Israel" (
link)
May 2019 - More Shia militia rocket attacks against the US Embassy after visit of US Secretary of State (
link) who tells Iraq to sort out the Shia militias (
link) and after Iran attacks Saudi oil pipelines (
link)
Apr 2019 - Shia militias launch rocket attacks against US facilities in the Green Zone (
link)
Mar 2019 - Shia militias kidnap and kill two prominent anti-Shia critics whilst forcing a US foot patrol to retreat by using "technicals" (
link)
Feb 2019 - US Forces directly face off against Shia militias for the first time in nearly a decade (
link) while Christians say Shia militias are beating them (
link)
Jan 2019 - Leader of the biggest Shia militia tells US troops to go back home or be driven out by force (
link)
Previous Years - The same old "Shia militias fire rockets at the green zone etc" followed by "US tells Iraq to crack down on Shia militias" and repeat until bored.
So just over the last 12 months there has been a slow increase in Shia militia activity from Jan onwards when Shia militias started to build in violence, increasing in intensity until the US Embassy attack in Dec. Then the US kills Suleimani plus the leaders of the PMF and suddenly we get zero Shia militia activity since, which obviously won't last as replacements for those killed will eventually be found, but they'll be far quieter now they
know a drone has their name on it if the US decides they've gone "too far".
So what of Suleimani and why don't people know anything about him being "a terrorist". Well plainly put his activities are widely known and have been printed by most Western newspapers but people just don't read the stories printed about him or about what really happens in the Middle East that much. Here's just a few examples of what he's been doing over the past 15+ years. I've picked stories which can be considered either good - fighting Sunni ISIS - or bad - killing US/UK troops to show that the world is never simply "black or white" -
2015 - Inside Iraq directing Shia militias in the fight against Sunni ISIS (
link)
2014 - Effectively given amnesty by Obama via the Iran nuclear deal (
link)
2013 - Commands Shia miltias and Iranian troops in Syria fighting Sunni ISIS (
link -
very good article on him BTW!!!)
2012 - After the death of Osama Bin Laden, Gen Suleimani is named as the worlds most dangerous terrorist by Israel (
link)
2009 - Several high ranking Quds members (the organisation Suleimani runs) found in Iraq training Shia militias to fight US and UK troops (
link)
2007 - President Bush claims Suleimani is directly involved in the deaths of at least 170 US servicemen by arming Shia militias with EFP explosives and training them (
link)
etc etc
These sort of stories have been around for at least 15 years. I first heard of him in 2007 during the Madhi uprising where Shia militias unsuccessfully tried to land Iranian supplied 107mm, 122mm and 203mm rockets on my pretty little head whilst I was in Basrah but his Quds force had been active in Basrah since 2004 at least and in Baghdad since 2003 supplying weapons and training to Shia militias.
. No one had heard of him until a certain orange POS decided to cause a distraction from his impending impeachment and outright kill him.
