‘The US, Like Israel, Has Become A Pariah That Shreds & Violates International Law’

The assassination by the United States of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, near Baghdad’s airport will ignite widespread retaliatory attacks against US targets from Shiites, who form the majority in Iraq.

It will activate Iranian-backed militias and insurgents in Lebanon and Syria and throughout the Middle East.

The existing mayhem, violence, failed states and war, the result of nearly two decades of US blunders and miscalculations in the region, will become an even wider and more dangerous conflagration.

The consequences are ominous. Not only will the US swiftly find itself under siege in Iraq and perhaps driven out of the country—there is only a paltry force of 5,200 U.S. troops in Iraq, all U.S. citizens in Iraq have been told to leave the country “immediately” and the embassy and consular services have been closed—but the situation could also draw us into a