By Dagmar Henn.
There are news that make you gasp for breath. They go down the pit of your stomach like a punch. Such a message went on Sunday, 05.01.2020 via the Twitter account of journalist Elijah J. Magnier.
“We have learned today from #Iraq Prime Minister AdilAbdl Mahdi how @realDonaldTrump uses diplomacy:
#US asked #Iraq to mediate with #Iran. Iraq PM asks #QassemSoleimani to come and talk to him and give him the answer of his mediation, Trump &co assassinate an envoy at the airport”
You have to translate this message into another environment to understand how incomprehensible it is. Let us suppose that the Russian Government asked the German Government to mediate with Ukraine. The German government sends the incumbent Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Kiev, whereupon his vehicle is blown up by a Russian drone at the airport there…
No, this comparison does not even come close to what happened. Not only because one cannot imagine such behavior from the Russian side, or because Olaf Scholz is a political dwarf compared to Quassam Soleimani. But it does at least reveal the perfidy behind these events and the fundamental way in which every rule of international law has been violated.
Not even the Nazis went that far. To ask for negotiations, and then to murder the negotiators? I can think of only one historical event which had this quality – the shooting of the German ambassador during the negotiations in Brest-Litovsk in the young Soviet Republic by the Social Revolutionaries; and the consequence of this act was that the Social Revolutionaries were thrown out of the government and organizationally crushed, had to be crushed because this act would otherwise have made any further peace negotiations impossible. The survival of the young state, however, depended on this peace.
But the United States is not a country just after a revolution. It is a world power in decline, a wounded, cornered predator. The decisions are not made by underground fighters who suddenly came to power, but by professional politicians and military men with years of experience, prepared to break every rule of intergovernmental relations.
The fact that the German press trivializes the murder as a ‘killing’ and the Foreign Office is trying to find a justification for a wrongful execution can still be seen as the usual toadyism, which is due because one’s own raids like to take place in the slipstream of the bigger robber. One has already got used to it when a murder is not called murder, and the cloak of silence is spread over the approval of the drone control via Ramstein. This is, so to speak, imperialist day-to-day business.
But silence, ducking away or even justifying the act which has now become visible would immediately put German diplomacy, which has already suffered enough under Mr Maas, completely out of action. Anyone who invites people to negotiations in order to murder the negotiator is not fit to negotiate. Not trustworthy. And the same applies to all those who approve, justify or support such behavior.
The appointment of the German representative in Tehran is a first sign in this direction (2). But what is behind such an act, which can only be called state-organized terrorism? There are basically only two conceivable explanations – either US foreign policy is being conducted by complete madmen, or the disputes within the apparatus have now reached a viciousness that includes open treason.
The magazine Foreign Policy (3), not exactly close to Trump, has emphasized in an article that the decision to launch this attack was only discussed by US Secretary of War Esper in the innermost circle, high-ranking officials complaining that they were left out.
Whether Esper, who in his former work for the arms company Raytheon was described as a top lobbyist, is more loyal to his commander-in-chief than to the military-industrial complex, is open to question. When and how Trump was informed in this case, whether the planning took place behind his back or whether false information was deliberately provided – in the meantime everything seems conceivable. The fact that figures like the former CIA chief Petraeus praise the assassination attempt in the highest tones indicates where the wind is blowing from (4).
If, however, two different factions are actually at work, one of which is arranging the negotiations on Iraq, the other of which has destroyed them, then the disputes between them have reached a sharpness that makes the entire US foreign policy completely unpredictable. The rumor of a US request to Iran (5) to limit retaliation to an equal measure and the confirmed involvement of Qatar as mediator support this assumption. However, only the distant future will provide certainty as to which variant actually applies.
In both cases, however, there will not be the necessary response from what is always so pompously called the ‘international community’. The open terrorist attack on diplomatic representatives – of whatever origin, whoever they may be – should lead to diplomatic responses, of which the mildest would be the appointment of ambassadors. Because anyone who attacks negotiators whom they themselves have appointed has abolished diplomacy as a political tool.
Such a state is no longer suitable as a negotiating partner, let alone an ally. A German government with a spark of honor in its body would now at least have to cancel the planned US large-scale maneuver Defender 2020 and demand the cessation of any act of attack on the Ramstein base.
One can hope for a long time with the Berlin dwarf troops; they will continue to call on Iran and not the USA to show moderation and otherwise act as if nothing had happened.
The German Federal Foreign Office should elect the famous three monkeys for the seal, who see nothing, hear nothing and say nothing.
Sources:
- https://twitter.com/ejmalrai/status/1213833855754485762
- https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-security-iran-germany/iran-summons-german-diplomat-over-destructive-soleimani-statements-tv-idUSKBN1Z40O2
- https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/01/05/pentagon-chief-kept-tight-circle-on-suleimani-strike/
- https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/202001051077953862-ex-cia-head-lauds-soleimani-killing-says-its-more-significant-than-bin-laden-al-baghdadi-deaths/
- https://twitter.com/ejmalrai/status/1213468436917080066
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