Unconfirmed: Among the dead is the son in law of Sulaimani and he was also the son in law of Imad Mughniyeh.
..............
Mughniyeh was the founder of Lebanon’s Islamic Jihad and number two in Hezbollah’s leadership before we killed him in 2008.
...........
This strike may prove to be the highest value targe we’ve ever hit, next to bin Laden.
“This strike may prove to be the highest value target we’ve ever hit, next to bin Laden.”
When we got him, bin Laden was apparently of little value. Yes he induced grievous harm, but he was no longer a threat - his killing was a matter of justice, not of defense.
Sulaimani & Co killed today were active threats, high value because they were, are, and will cause serious harm to our people & interests.
Bin laden hit was a lie, so this is probably top of the shelf.
Benghazi - 13 hours begging for help, ambassador dies
Baghdad attack - 13 minutes until help is on the way, 13 hours until the mastermind is dead in a strategic strike.
And this will probably PREVENT a war with Iran.
Arguably more important than Bin Laden. Sure, Bin Laden got his well deserved comeuppance but by the time they ‘found’ him he was likely not in operational control of anything beyond his harem. Soleimani was highly active and responsible for far more deaths in total, including some 650 American servicepeople (and thousands more injured) in Iraq and untold others all around the region including thousands of civilians.
It shows what a sickness that Obama’s deal with Iran was. And it puts Europe on notice to stop coddling that regime, that the regime needs to fall. I hope it does not lead to an intractable war. But the Iranian people deserve a chance to vote those religious fanatics out of office and Obama gave them a huge shot in the arm. A single party election, like in China, is barely a pretense to democratic principles.