AT LEAST 65 active-duty troops died in hostile action during #Trump’s presidency, the records show, as he ramped up commitments in #Iraq & #Syria to fight #ISIL / #ISIS while also launching airstrikes on Syria as punishment for a chemical weapons attack. Trump also escalated hostilities w/ #Iran, including the killing of #Soleimani. Trump claimed at the time the strike was carried out in accordance w/the Authorization for Use of Military Force resolution of 2001.

#Iran attacked a US drone in 2019, but #Trump did NOT hit back. He lost his nerve [#ChickenedOut] at the last minute, acc/to multiple news accounts. Then Iran attacked a US military base in 2020 after Trump ordered the drone killing of Iranian Maj Gen Qasem #Soleimani on Jan 3, 2020. No one was killed, though more than 100 service members suffered from traumatic brain injuries.

#FactCheck #VanceLies #VPdebate #disinformation #propaganda #trumpaganda

@ManyRoads #iran will certainly continue to oppose #trump, because otherwise #soleimani will turn in his grave

#Soleimani ’s assassination seems to have given a new impetus to the so-called #AxisOfResistance - the network of groups in the region doing #ran ’s bidding. This network is far from homogenous - each group has its own agenda.

These range from pure proxies like some #Iraqi militias and #Afghan and #Pakistani #Shia mercenary groups, which are the absolute creations of the #IRGC with little independent decision making power and ideologically absolutely line of the Islamic republic.
(cont.)

#soleimani was seen as defending #Iran on its frontlines in #Iraq against an extremist #Sunni group - #ISIS #IS #daesh which was dedicated to the murder of #Shia Muslims, wherever they could find them. there have already been several years of speculation whether in the #Iranian press that Soleimani would actually run for President

When he was assassinated we saw a genuine huge wave of mourning in Iran, his funeral was apparently the biggest mass gathering recorded in Iranian history
cont

In 1999 #Iran had a hostile neighbour to its east in the Islamic Emirate of the #Taliban in #Afghanistan. And it was there that #Soleimani , after 911, used the #IRGC ’s knowledge of Taliban bases to help the #US when it came to the invasion in 2001. Because although the IRGC was rhetorically opposed to the US, it was the Taliban that posed the more present danger. Although the IRGC went on to cooperate with various factions of the Taliban against the Republic in Afghanistan after 2001.
cont

He was already a notorious figure around the time of the Arab Spring and the outbreak of the #Syrian civil war.
In #Syria first it was #Soleimani 's role in ensuring that the #IRGC propped up the govt of Bashar al #Assad after the outbreak of civil war - he reportedly personally convinced the supreme leader, who he had a direct line to, to intervene in Syria on Assad's behalf. And then again, reportedly goes to #Moscow to convince #Putin to intervene in Syria on Assad’s behalf.
(cont.)

the #Quds force was not a household name until a few years ago - they emerged into the spotlight under the command of Qasem #Soleimani - he was a construction worker at the time in Kerman, with little formal schooling, but thanks to the revolution he became an #IRGC paramilitary. He was involved both in the suppression of the #Kurdish revolts in ethnic Kurdish regions of #Iran in 1979, but also gained status as a kind of a war hero in the Iran-Iraq war

(cont.)