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<div class="gmail-_5pbx gmail-userContent gmail-_3ds9 gmail-_3576" id="gmail-js_3"><p>By <span class="gmail-_2t_q" id="gmail-fb-timeline-cover-name"><a class="gmail-_2nlw gmail-_2nlv" href="https://www.facebook.com/sima.shakhsari">Sima Shakhsari - January 3, 2020<br></a></span></p>
<p></p><p>Things that have made me cringe a few times today:</p><p>
1. Celebrations of Soleimani’s death by fellow Iranians.If you are
celebrating, you either don’t understand that this is going to
potentially cost thousands of lives in the region, or you are pro-war.
If the latter, I have nothing to say to you. </p><p> 2. The way that
some people totally take the U.S. presence in Iraq as the norm, but are
shocked that Iran has presence in Iraq. The U.S. neocolonial domination
in Iraq has become naturalized to the point that we don’t ask why is it
that 17 years after “liberation” (my a%#) of Iraq, US security
forces/proxies are still there. And why are the lives of one or two
American proxies worth more than lives of thousands of Iraqis?</p><p> 3.
As much as I am fully in support of an independent Iraq and think that
only Iraqis should run Iraq, I really have a problem with the way that
people treat U.S. and Iran as equal imperial elements in Iraq. First,
there is a HUGE difference between U.S. imperialism and the Iranian
geopolitical and idealogical influence/interest in Iraq (and Syria and
Lebanon for that matter). The myth of sovereignty of nation-states and
the assumption that there is an even playing field in the international
relations erases gross inequalities of power in this narrative. You
simply cannot equate the power that the U.S. empire has with Iran’s
regional support of Hizbollah and Al-Hashd a’sha’bi. So when you say in
the same breath “U.S. and Iran out of Iraq,” it is kind of like liberal
queers saying “Israel stop persecuting Palestinians and Palestine stop
persecuting Queers!” As well-intentioned as it may be, the two are
simply not the same and by putting them in the same sentence, you are
erasing the gross violence of Israeli settler colonialism. In the case
of Iran and the U.S. you are erasing the violence of US imperialism,
histories of economic extraction, and US geopolitical and military
interventions in the Middle East (by making it seem like Iran and the US
are two equal nation-states in the “international” order of things).
That is not the case.</p><p> 4. This phrase: “it’s true that Soleimani
has American blood on his hands, but the U.S. should not have
assassinated him illegally” (or similar phrases that seem very benign. I
am not a Soleimani fan, because to me he represents the conservative
elements of the Iranian state. But hear me out: the man was a military
strategist who cleaned up the mess that the US had managed to create in
the region. And I am talking about Al Qaeda and the US-backed Free
Syrian Army from which some elements of ISIS emerged. And it was Iran’s
quds forces under Soleimani’s strategic leadership that curbed ISIS in
Iraq. And so congrats to the US for killing Soleimani and potentially
emboldening ISIS again. <br> Again, I am not defending Iran’s support of
Asad in Syria. But you cannot ignore Iran’s role in stopping ISIS on
one hand, and curbing US and Israeli aggression on the other. Sadly,
Soleimani was so dedicated to the cause that he did it at any cost
(including collaborating with Asad). So, he had more Syrian blood on his
hand than American blood. And if anything, he and his forces protected
Americans’ asses against ISIS in Iraq. But as we know, friends become
enemies when they no longer serve US interests (examples are too many).
Before I get accused of revering Soleimani, let me be clear that I am
not saying idolize Soleimani after his death. But recognize what he did.
And accept that for many in Iran he was considered to be a national
hero and a humanitarian. But as it is often the case, discourses of
national security (which are coupled with state’s humanitarian claims)
often produce internal others. And that is why for the people whom he
deemed enemies, he was not quite loved. </p><p> 5. Making this solely
about the American elections, or only worrying about the human and
monetary cost of another war to Americans. Meanwhile, some of us cannot
sleep thinking about thousands of Iraqi, Syrian, Iranian, and Lebanese
lives that could soon become casualties and numbers.</p><p> If I come across as bitter and grumpy, it’s because I am.</p></div><div>
<font size="1"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/sima.shakhsari?__tn__=%2CdCH-R-R&eid=ARB79jkAzANpvbOOEe3GZsthJG6ujKUkN75HKJAPwnRrfDnnWF8fWQG17YSvSJUB7P_JIh6aujXnoI8v&hc_ref=ARRDKgCnZ-kIIgoWWiIJkAypJbEQFo0YBRvKeUaWCLqktD-vFOUFMpadxWDNvLsRq9Y&fref=nf">https://www.facebook.com/sima.shakhsari?__tn__=%2CdCH-R-R&eid=ARB79jkAzANpvbOOEe3GZsthJG6ujKUkN75HKJAPwnRrfDnnWF8fWQG17YSvSJUB7P_JIh6aujXnoI8v&hc_ref=ARRDKgCnZ-kIIgoWWiIJkAypJbEQFo0YBRvKeUaWCLqktD-vFOUFMpadxWDNvLsRq9Y&fref=nf</a></font></div><div><font size="1">_____________________________________________</font></div><div><font size="1">
</font><p>A friend in Iran who was not going to vote in the Iranian
elections—because he was extremely pissed with the Iranian state— is
going to Soleimani’s funeral and is now in favor of revenge. This is
what the U.S. assassination of Soleimani has done to many Iranians. It’s
called nationalism. And it works like a charm. Imagine if Pompeo was
assassinated by Iranian drones on a visit to Canada to discuss military
coalitions. I doubt that American nationalism would not be mobilizing <span class="gmail-text_exposed_show">a war (the comparison is far from perfect because of the uneven geopolitical relations, but you get the point).</span></p><div class="gmail-text_exposed_show"><p>
So, while the U.S. election trick (start a war to distract from
impeachment, etc.) might sound like a logical explanation, the world
does not revolve around the U.S. domestic politics. This is more about
the U.S. geopolitical power in the region and the fear of independent
democratic movements that would cut off U.S. political and economic
power in the “Middle East.” This assassination has effectively hijacked
the protests in Iraq. And it has incited strong nationalist feelings
among many Iranians who would put their grievances aside to defend Iran
in the face of U.S. attacks.. It has further polarized the political
realm and left people with only two options: to stand behind the Iranian
state’s military forces, or to advocate US-backed regime change. Same
trend applies to Iraq (and by extension other parts of the region if a
war breaks out). It is already happening in social media fights between
those who celebrate Soleimani and Al-Mohandes’s deaths and those who see
them as heros who stopped ISIS... So we are back at the Manichaean
logic of “you are either with us or against us...” Trump is a moron,
but this is bigger than Trump. It’s not just a “reckless” act by an
idiot in chief. It is a calculated and vicious evil plan that will leave
thousands and thousands Iranians and Iraqis dead, and will push the
possibility of independent and truly democratic movements (not the
replicas of US liberal democracy) back by decades. This is not because
Trump fears impeachment. It is more because the U.S. imperialist agenda
despises truly democratic uprisings in the Middle East. They are not
good for the business.</p></div>
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