Qasem Soleimani (March 11, 1957 - January 3, 2020)

Qasem Soleimani was blown to bits on January 3, 2020 and the world is probably a better place. If more of the powerful men who make war around the world had to pay the consequences, we’d have a lot less of it. I would say that as a general rule—no pun intended—the world’s military elite are the lowest form of life on the planet. I’m sure they all study history—mostly of the military kind—yet they seem to take no lesson from what they study. The biggest message is lost on almost all military elites: violence almost never solves a problem.

The guy definitely deserved to get blown to bits by a missile, but this doesn’t mean that it should have been done. I can’t imagine any possible way that this will improve the stance of the United States of America in the world theater. I can’t think of a single military action in my lifetime that improved America’s standing. Violence begets more violence, and if we think this will somehow end with this one act, we are stupider than I have ever imagined.

We have been at war in the Middle East for 19 years. I can’t see how anyone could propose that things are better now, in any way, than they were before we first invaded Afghanistan in October of 2001.