Free Republic

President Trump ordered a U.S. airstrike that killed Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, leader of the foreign wing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The strike spurred mass displays of public mourning by Iran and its network of allies across the Middle East. Iranian leaders issued strident calls on Friday for revenge against the United States after the killing of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani in an overnight airstrike at the Baghdad airport. The strike spurred mass displays of public mourning by Iran and its network of allies across the Middle East. But there is another side of this story. Remember when...

So, just who is this top Iranian general the U.S. just eliminated? For many of us who watch and analyze news out of the Middle East daily, he was the world’s number one bad guy. Qassim Soleimani has been in control of Iran’s Quds Force for more than 20 years. His current greatest hits include helping Bashar al Assad slaughter hundreds of thousands of his own people in the Syrian civil war, stoking the Houthis in Yemen’s civil war, and overseeing the killing of hundreds of Iraqi protesters recently demonstrating against Iranian influence in their country.

Sen. Chris Murphy expressed dismay that the United States killed Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani without first obtaining congressional approval. "Soleimani was an enemy of the United States," the Connecticut Democrat tweeted Thursday night. "That’s not a question. The question is this — as reports suggest, did America just assassinate, without any congressional authorization, the second most powerful person in Iran, knowingly setting off a potential massive regional war?" Soleimani, 62, was killed Thursday in an airstrike near Baghdad International Airport along with Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, head of the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Forces. Murphy attacked President Trump last week for...