Opinion: Suleimani is owed no eulogies, but his record is more complicated than 'evil mastermind' (via latimesopinion)
The American military won’t miss Major Gen. Qassim Suleimani. As the mastermind of Iran’s foreign military operations, Suleimani, who died Thursday in a U.S. airstrike, was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of U.S. soldiers over a decade and a half in Iraq.
Not long after Al Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks, U.S. forces and their Afghan allies toppled the Taliban government that had provided a haven for Al Qaeda. Then came the job of working together with other world powers to set up a new government in Kabul. The Iranians, who had long been at odds with their eastern neighbor, opened secret talks with U.S. officials to discuss how to beat the Taliban and also how to put together a successor regime.
Publicly, the Tehran government continued to denounce the U.S. government, as it always had since the 1979 revolution. But privately, Crocker was getting word from Iranian officials that Suleimani was very pleased with the two countries’ collaboration, which included building a network of roads in Afghanistan.The harmony was short-lived. On Jan. 29, 2002, President Bush denounced Iran as part of an “axis of evil,” and threatened to attack its nuclear program.
Crocker understood that the Iranians were extremely influential in Iraq, and thought the council wouldn’t work without some level of their support. Getting that support meant indirect communication with Suleimani about who should be picked for the council.
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