‘Dumbest man in Iran’: Thomas Friedman mocks Qassem Soleimani
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman asserted Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani showed ineptitude in his efforts to prop up Iran. Friedman mocked the military leader, who was killed Thursday in a U.S. drone strike, as a “military genius” who drove his country into the ground as he sought to broaden Iran’s power in the Middle East. “One day they may name a street after President Trump in Tehran. Why? Because Trump just ordered the assassination of possibly the dumbest man in Iran and the most overrated strategist in the Middle East,” Friedman wrote of Soleimani.
Friedman said the leader of the Quds Force miscalculated after the Iran nuclear deal when he and Iran’s supreme leader sought control through their proxies of several cities in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. U.S. allies urged the Trump administration to respond to Iran’s actions, and the deal, which Friedman referred to as a “great deal” for Iran, was eventually revoked by Trump. The deal agreed to by the Obama administration and Iran in 2015 lifted sanctions on the country and helped grow its economy. When the Trump administration reinforced the sanctions, Iran raised its gas prices, prompting massive protests and brutal crackdowns, “further weakening the legitimacy of the regime,” Friedman wrote. “Today’s Iran is the heir to a great civilization and the home of an enormously talented people and significant culture. Wherever Iranians go in the world today, they thrive as scientists, doctors, artists, writers and filmmakers — except in the Islamic Republic of Iran, whose most famous exports are suicide bombing, cyberterrorism and proxy militia leaders. The very fact that Suleimani was probably the most famous Iranian in the region speaks to the utter emptiness of this regime, and how it has wasted the lives of two generations of Iranians by looking for dignity in all the wrong places and in all the wrong ways,” the columnist wrote. Soleimani’s proxies prevented any of the countries they inhabited from developing infrastructure such as schools, roads, and electricity, Friedman said, leading Soleimani’s “kingmakers” to be hated in the region “even more so than Trump’s America.” Friedman also said that when Soleimani confronted Israel, he was unprepared for the strength of Israeli forces, and even though he helped fight the Islamic State, he was responsible for its rise by Iran’s overreach in Iraq.
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