RUTHFULLY YOURS

No one expected the U.S. media to take President Trump’s decision to rid the world of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani well, but the MSM’s outpouring of grief over the top terrorist kingpin’s death has reached Onion/Babylon Bee levels of parodic absurdity.

The media has played up Soleimani’s reputation as a brilliant military strategist beloved by his people, while downplaying his responsibility for the destruction of countless lives across the Middle East.

The fact is, Soleimani was a monster.

Qassem Soleimani was responsible for 11 recent attacks on U.S. facilities in Iraq even before the one that killed a U.S. contractor; Iranian attacks on neutral, civilian shipping in the Gulf; the attack on Aramco facilities in Saudi Arabia; IEDs that killed hundreds of American soldiers in Iraq. He was the architect of Iran’s strategy of mobilizing militias to destabilize neighboring states and the brutal strategy of bleeding Syria dry.

While we may not be at war with Iran, Soleimani has been at war with the United States for 15 years.

Soleimani was also notoriously brutal to his own people, as Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad pointed out in the Washington post.

This past November, thousands of Iranians took to the streets across the country to protest against the regime, in the biggest challenge to the clerical rule in 40 years. According to Reuters, more than 1,500 people were killed by security forces, including units of Soleimani’s Revolutionary Guard, and at least 7,000 have been arrested. The Internet was shut down for five days

Attempts by members of the Resistance media to lionize this terror mastermind have been grimly amusing.

The Associated Press published a touching piece on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s “rare display of emotion” at the funeral of the terrorist general “with whom he shared a deep bond.” The AP noted that the Iranian despot’s “voice cracked under the weight of the moment” as he “cried openly” while mourning the death of his friend.

Michael Barbaro of the New York Times on Monday posted a podcast interview with Times reporter Helene Cooper in which Cooper lamented that the U.S. military was “tragically … very good” at “knowing how to kill people.”

Also instructive is the Times’ treatment of the recently departed in its obituaries:

While donning a headscarf, ABC News’s Martha Raddatz walked ruefully among the “massive and emotional” crowds of mourners and declared that the Iranian people were “united against America.” She characterized Soleimani as a “revered general” who was “a critic of the United States.”

Washington Post national security reporter Missy Ryan found consolation in sharing a dopey left-wing meme comparing the crowd sizes of the mourners in Tehran and of Trump supporters at his inauguration.

Incredibly, Time felt it was necessary to counsel parents on how to “talk to their kids” about the Soleimani assassination.

Sure, Soleimani had Syrian, Iraqi, Iranian, Yemeni, Lebanese, and American blood on his hands, but it’s no surprise that the anti-Trump media would want to controversialize his assassination. Americans have a tendency to rally behind presidents in times of major military developments or war—and it’s an election year. It’s no secret that the MSM “Resistance” is all-in on defeating Trump either electorally or through impeachment.

But there is another possible reason for the media’s bizarre reactions to Soleimani’s untimely death. The designated terrorist had the respect and admiration of their political idol—former president Barack Obama.

“Obama likes Suleimani, and admires his work,” wrote American journalist and author Lee Smith in July of 2015.  Smith, an expert in terrorism and radical ideologies in the Middle East and North Africa, noted that Obama had lifted sanctions on a number of Iranian entities and individuals—including  Soleimani—to secure the nuclear deal, making “his preference for Iran and its allies clear.”

Obama administration officials explained that Suleimani was still on the U.S. terror list and would remain there, but as Lee noted, that was irrelevant. “The reality is that Suleimani is the key to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.”

Indeed, Obama told a group of Arab officials in May of 2015 that they “need to learn from Iran’s example.”

The sanctions relief for Soleimani was actually agreed upon in 2013, and was part of the plan all along, tweeted Omni Ceren, the national security adviser for Senator Ted Cruz.